Disturbing, gritty western, with predators circling the new railroad line.

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2007)

We have petty land barons burning out their neighbors to horde land for sale to the new railroad. We have robbers (Crowe) robbing the railroad payroll coach. There are realistic hails of bullets where few people get hit, and occasional marksman-class shots with one body per round fired. We have a 'Mexican' sharpshooter, that in closeups doesn't seem to have hands steady enough to make use of the Wm. Malcom style telescopic rifle sight.
I found the story uncomfortable. There were too many killings for often capricious reasons. Crowe repeatedly chatted with one of his captors, usually just before killing him. The morality of capturing the gang leader and leaving the rest of the gang marauding around Texas and Arizon seems somewhere between absurd and ignorant. And the movie seems all too apt to inspire modern day 'trigger happy' people. The violent actions seem too relevant for today to take lightly. The bad guy rides off to a prison he has already broken free from twice, the greedy land baron is thwarted from one grab, but remains greedy and unpunished.
This truly is a story of a wounded Civil War veteran turned broke family man on a drought-stricken farm in Arizona. He manages to find self respect, protect his family, and recover his initially trigger-happy, killing-advocate son to responsible adult behavior.
The telling of the story is very compelling, but the story wanders a bit at times.