It's the first film together for Keifer and Donald Sutherland, playing father and son who have been estranged for a while and are reunited after the death of Kiefer's mother and Donald's wife. Keifer was once known as a fast shot, but he has put away his guns in his efforts to turn his life around. But it's obvious he's going to need these weapons again as his father's Community is being harassed by land baron Brian Cox's vile gang who has no hesitation in violently killing people who refuse to sell their land cheaply to them.
I don't know what kind of filters they used in the photography, if they use them at all, but there is something very moody in the way that this is filmed, and that element makes it gorgeous. Most of the colors inside seem to be pastels, but when the camera focuses on dozens of trees together, the greens are very vibrant and the vista is stunning. Demi Moore has a nice supporting role as Keifer's old girlfriend who is now married and mother of a young son. She is photographed as slightly weather-beaten but still attractive, and she really looks the part a woman in the old west. Nice to see her loosen up her glamour and be real.
The film itself is very violent, a dark reminder that classic Hollywood westerns didn't always show the hardships people in the middle of nowhere faced. Cox and his gang are villains with no remorse, not only content to beat someone senseless, but shooting at their victims in a way that stuns them at first before they go in for the real kill. It is shocking and repulsive, but the film doesn't hesitate to show the viewer what these innocent farmers were up against.
Both Sutherlands are very good, and as their estrangement decreases, Keifer realizes that he at least has two temporarily pull his guns back out to fight for what's right. It's ironic that for a film that is so physically violent that the characters have a soft way of speaking, even when everything around them seems Blake. That makes it much more powerful than had it been more loud and angry. Subtlety really controls the mood here, and for that, I give this a higher rating than I might have otherwise.
I don't know what kind of filters they used in the photography, if they use them at all, but there is something very moody in the way that this is filmed, and that element makes it gorgeous. Most of the colors inside seem to be pastels, but when the camera focuses on dozens of trees together, the greens are very vibrant and the vista is stunning. Demi Moore has a nice supporting role as Keifer's old girlfriend who is now married and mother of a young son. She is photographed as slightly weather-beaten but still attractive, and she really looks the part a woman in the old west. Nice to see her loosen up her glamour and be real.
The film itself is very violent, a dark reminder that classic Hollywood westerns didn't always show the hardships people in the middle of nowhere faced. Cox and his gang are villains with no remorse, not only content to beat someone senseless, but shooting at their victims in a way that stuns them at first before they go in for the real kill. It is shocking and repulsive, but the film doesn't hesitate to show the viewer what these innocent farmers were up against.
Both Sutherlands are very good, and as their estrangement decreases, Keifer realizes that he at least has two temporarily pull his guns back out to fight for what's right. It's ironic that for a film that is so physically violent that the characters have a soft way of speaking, even when everything around them seems Blake. That makes it much more powerful than had it been more loud and angry. Subtlety really controls the mood here, and for that, I give this a higher rating than I might have otherwise.