Years before he navigated the Texas plains as Tommy Norris in “Landman,” Billy Bob Thornton portrayed an even more unyielding figure for an energy firm. The 1994 movie “On Deadly Ground” featured the actor in a minor capacity as a mercenary, commissioned by an oil corporation to eliminate a firefighter-turned-oil worker played by Steven Seagal. It wasn’t a good film, yet luckily for Thornton, his appearance was short-lived — though that didn’t prevent him from incurring a serious physical injury during the shoot.
In “Landman,” Thornton exhibits his signature shrewdness. The now 70-year-old skillfully delivers cynical West Texas remarks in a series that seems primed to enthrall viewers across middle America.