“You’re all going to be tired of seeing me by the time this is over,” Clancy native Robert Shupe told the nearly sold-out audience at the screening for “Handshake” at the Myrna Loy in Helena on Thursday, May 18.
Shupe wrote, directed, produced and starred in the movie, which was filmed in and around Jefferson County, especially the Clancy area. The Legal Tender (since closed), for example, is the setting for a pivotal conversation between main characters Devin Fowler (Shupe) and Bill Burdick (Joe Basso). Both the interior and exterior of the Clancy United Methodist Church is also prominently featured. The Jefferson County Courthouse, however, is the most prominent local landmark, as it plays host to the trial, which featured Jefferson County residents as jurors, including Shupe’s mother, Laurie.
Filmed in 2019, “Handshake” is a story about two men who have a chance encounter out at a fishing spot south of Craig. Fowler, a young man turning to small-town crime while he struggles to find a job, stumbles upon mild-mannered, middle-aged Burdick while running from dangerous debt collectors. Burdick is just starting out his day fishing on the river, but he seems genuinely interested in Fowler’s situation and agrees to give him a ride back to Helena. Burdick, however, has his own agenda. What ensues is far beyond what Fowler could have imagined, and he soon finds his whole world unraveling.
