Oscar Race Starts Early This Year!

Rating: 10/10 (6 September 2007)

Well, growing up enjoying every type of movie that involved guns, horses and guns, I was really looking forward to this remake of a Glenn Ford 1957 classic... I was not let down one bit! I was invited to see a sneak preview with a group of print writers from several papers. I could see them scribbling away while I was soaking in the post Civil War look that was being shown up on the big screen... I was 6 years old again and seeing a true American Western... yippee!!!
This movie was extremely well written and equally well acted. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale give Oscar worthy performances and Ben Forster, as Crowe's number one henchmen Charlie Prince, gives the finest supporting acting performance I've seen in years! He'll probably be overlooked at Oscar time, but he commanded the screen when his character in a maniacal greatness, shot man after man in a cold blooded ease.
This has a Clint Eastwood revisionist feel to it with the good guys and bad guys living in a gray line blur. Peter Fonda plays a mercenary Pinkerton man that admits that he's only read the Bible and no other books, but kills Apache with disregard. Ben Wade (Crowe) calls him on the apparent hypocrisy of his actions.
I'll not spoil the ending here, but I'll tell you that for all of Ben Wade's rotten nature, he proves that "even bad guys love their mothers!"
You'll enjoy this movie if you like guns, horses and guns... like me!!!