Amazing? Far from it.

Rating: 1/10 (8 January 2008)

This movie was fair at best. To assume that this was one of the greatest westerns ever is almost laughable. The cover of the DVD proclaims "the best western since 'Unforgiven'". Of course this was by a no name reviewer from the Houston Chronicle which should be a dead giveaway as to the content. The film was shot nicely and the acting was OK but they really had weak material to work with. The story was incredibly formulaic as most Hollywood films are. There were innumerable cheesy lines that were insulting to the intelligence that were only there to drive the theme of "becoming a man and overcoming one's past" home. Wow! Let's make the bad man (Crowe) look like a human being by showing his sensitive side. Jeez that's never been done before. At least in Unforgiven they did it with originality. What Eastwood did with a look or a sidelong glance took several terrible scenes of Crowe drawing pictures and talking about his mommy leaving him at a train station. Wow, how ironic. It was nice to see Peter Fonda again. He recovered pretty quickly from his gunshot wound though only to be tossed off a ledge by Crowe who was guarded by several inept people. You would think that with the money that the railroad had stolen they would invest more than a mere pittance to do away with their main adversary. But that is how Hollywood works, I suppose. If it drives the story, no matter how unbelievable, then it's in the script. I was drawn to this movie by hearing the scene between Bale and Crowe on NPR where Bale toys with the thought of taking the money and running. It sounded solid but I feel that the only money that was stolen was mine, unfortunately. Well....its a good thing that I love movies and that Peter Fonda is still alive. When I get robbed I don't feel so bad if it was done with some some original style and grace. One last thing....Ben Foster was a poor choice as Mr. Badass right hand dude (another formulaic character). He should have quit after Six Feet Under.