BEFORE: I've finally got my list under last year's closing total - down to 212 films. And I've still got a shot at getting it to under 200 before the end of the year. But I'm going to break for NY Comic-Con, and then I'm thinking of taking it a little easy in October to make the films line up better with Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. So the total may creep up again while I'm taking all these breaks. Linking from "Wyatt Earp", Kevin Costner carries over.
THE PLOT: A former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.
AFTER: There's going to be a lot of rustling this week, we had Wyatt Earp's past as a horse rustler, now tonight starts a chain where cattle rustling's involved. I can't say that the film made a great distinction between "free grazing" and, um, whatever the alternative would be - but that seems to be the source of the conflict between the cattle herders and the townsfolk, some of whom apparently don't like grazers who come so close to their town. Maybe this is a genuine sort of conflict, but I didn't understand how cattle eating grass miles from town could possibly hurt the town itself.
Whatever. What counts is that the conflict exists, and what comes after. The town ranchers beat up one of the free grazers, so the free grazers beat up a number of the ranchers, and so on. Things escalate until there's a giant shoot-out in the town, which most of the residents running to safety in the hills. And it's by no means a fair fight - the two free grazers against a bunch of ranchers, a corrupt sheriff, and also a few hired guns.
It's no "shootout at the O.K. corral", but it is a compelling fight. But it's 15 minutes of action in a 138-minute movie, so there's quite a bit of downtime leading up to the gun battle. And the main problem with the characters is that there's no Wyatt Earp or Davy Crockett among them, though maybe that's just my problem, since I got used to such famous Western personages over the last week.
Along the way, romance blossoms among one of the grazers and the town's nurse - and they've got ample opportunity to connect since she's always patching up one of them. This does enable the film to end on a charming note, which also feels slightly out of place in such a rugged, violent film. But there it is.
Also starring Robert Duvall (last seen in "Jack Reacher"), Annette Bening (last seen in "Running With Scissors"), Michael Gambon (last seen in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2"), Diego Luna (last seen in "The Terminal"), Michael Jeter (last seen in "Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit"), Dean McDermott, James Russo, Julian Richings (last seen in "The Claim" - damn, how did I miss that connection?), Kim Coates (last seen in "Goon").
RATING: 4 out of 10 Swiss chocolates
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