psychobabble, just don't listen too closely to the dialogue

Rating: 1/10 (23 September 2007)

(mild spoiler) This film had great cinematography and fine acting. The bare story had great promise which is a rancher trying to get a slick outlaw to the train to prison with a gang of outlaws hunting them. The film starts great with a stagecoach robbery with Gatling gun verses outlaws. Unfortunately, the film turns to soap opera. We must endure scene after scene listening to motivations and psychological analysis. This film must have been written by doctors or social workers.
The wife and family are a very unfriendly bunch to the father. He is blamed for not making enough money and a missing leg. With friends like these you don't need enemies. All the characters turn out to be no so good. Even the hero father seems to be saying he is just trying to set an example for his son or even just trying to impress his family. He ultimately blames the US government for his problems with his old war wounds. Even the actions of the boy made no sense near the end. This was in a sense an anti war western,
So much of the violence is gratuitous with graphic for the sake of graphic. Unlike Apocolypto or 300, there is absolutely no reason for the graphic closeups other than to say the world is brutal. Why some viewers believe redemption in any film is out of place is beyond me. This film has little of any point. Change and twisted new ideas just to be different does not improve film. This movie is better if you don't listen too closely. This film had potential but fails.