Reviewing Movies

A remake of a half-century old movie this film could bring back the popularity of westerns as a genre. As the leader of a robber band Ben Wade played by Russell Crowe slouches through the entire picture without an apparent care in the world; whistling for his horse in the final shot as he is being taken away for the inevitable hanging. The most sinister and frightening character is his loyal henchman Charlie Prince played by Ben Foster; he most reminds me of Bosie played by Charlie Hunnan in Cold Mountain for his unflinching desire to hunt down and kill anyone who would get in the way of his ambitions. Not that Ben Wade doesn’t kill people, but he does it in such an off-hand workmanlike fashion that he is not seen to derive pleasure from doing so as his henchman obviously does.

Wade appears almost amused by his capture and makes only half-hearted attempts at escape; the scene in which he single-handedly rescues his captors fighting off hostile Indians stretches willing disbelief beyond all reason. As the rancher hired to help bring Wade to justice Christian Bale’s Dan Evans glowers his way through the entire piece. The character who steals the movie for my money is his fourteen-year-old son played by Logan Lerman. A fuzzy cheeked youngster he rankles at being asked to stay home and mind the farm stealing off to follow the posse. When he faces down the desperado who has the drop on his captors there is a fire in his eye that makes even Wade believe he means to use that gun in his hand. This is a mature man in a boy’s body. His father may have been beaten down by past injuries and life’s circumstances but he has the will to succeed against all odds.

With the amount of lead that is seen to fly around this set it’s a wonder that anyone survives. Entire frontier towns were built for this movie; it’s been so long since Western Sets were utilized they’ve all fallen into disrepair. The old steam train was trucked in piece by piece and reassembled. If this movie serves to give new life to the genre expect to see these sets again and again.