Pathetic Post Modern Plot and Theme

Rating: 3/10 (3 May 2008)

I am no great fan of westerns, but I do like them occasionally. Maybe I am a traditionalist, but sometimes you have to have some sort of line between average folks, lawmen and ruthless killers and thieves. This movie makes the good into bad and the bad into good, not all the way, but close to it. The hero is Christian Bale as down on his luck family man rancher Dan Evans. He was the only bright light in the movie and played a decent man trying to make the best out of dangerous job. But he is supposed to be missing a leg which really doesn't slow him down a whit. Russel Crow is Ben Wade, our charismatic bad guy, charming anti-hero, that is the charmer almost everyone wants to love, it seems. The lawmen seem to be all crooked or almost as bad as the criminals so when they get killed by our charming anti-hero, we are on the anti-hero's side. Chief example of this is the bounty hunter Byron McElroy, played well by Peter Fonda. He is full of Bible quotes and is brave, but our charming anti-hero knows him well and lets him live after the initial hold up. But later, as the motley crew is leading our charming anti-hero to Contention, where the train in the title was to be boarded, he informs us that Byron McElroy killed a bunch of renegade Apache women and children in some mop up campaign. Then when Byron McElroy went and insulted Wade's parents, this after Wade killed one of the crew earlier, Wade jumps Byron McElroy, grabs his guns, and turns the table on his escorts, who he lets live after taking the horses but throws Byron McElroy off a cliff for insulting his parents. Great, a rude Apache civilian killer is killed off by the charismatic bad guy yet no one is appalled by another killing cause being a cool bad guy, he only kills people who deserve it somehow. To throw another detail in, Byron McElroy only reads the Bible and is a believer. Not that I am some right wing commentator, but why throw that detail in too in a time when many people were like that. Of course, our real hero and our charming anti-hero bond together as they respect each other's manhood. Time after time, our charismatic anti-hero is in control and simply lets his escorts bring him to the train. Meanwhile, his murderous wraith of a second, Charlie Prince, leads the rest of his band on vicious ride to liberate our charismatic anti-hero. He actually played that part well as a totally dedicated psycho, a Hollywood staple. But once again, the good guys seemed incapable of killing him or the gang off and he just kills and kills. For instance, in the end he offers the citizens of Contention $200 a piece for every lawman they kill, but as the locals join in to help, he goes and kills them off, why? When the movie ends, it is because our charismatic anti-hero decides it's time to go to prison, what? In that way it is better than the "Unforgiven" where a killer bad guy Clint Eastwood "hero" gets "redeemed" by going on a hit-man job and killing off half a town full of vigilantes, who lack the moral purity of the criminal who somehow atoned for his crimes by living ten years murder and alcohol free and had a couple of kids. I know, we are all supposed to be so hip that we know the good guys are all crooked and the bad guys are charming, but this movie just rubs that into our face so much I wish for the simple days when bad meant bad.