A ridiculous concoction of clichÃ©s

Rating: 2/10 (17 September 2008)

From the very start you know what is going to happen. It's just a case of when.
The start is a bit alarming with the old Indian - could this be Little Big Man's son at the age of 153? But the Indians in this film are lovely as are, for a while, our American family, even if Anthony Hopkins' alarming attempts at an Irish accent are a little upsetting. However Brad Pitt's long hair and his incarnation as a kind of American romantic hero, and Julia Ormond's beauty, make it clear from the outset which way this film is going to go.
Part 2: the War!! The historical detail is apparent when you remark that the brave soldiers are not wearing tin helmets, but nonetheless the director has the good idea to give us a laughable, unrealistic, grotesque, attack sequence masquerading as a game of football. Then Brad Pitt goes completely feral. The film has become completely ridiculous without ever being sublime.
Part 3: Brad Pitt has to come to terms with things. Of course! War can be traumatic after all. Our romantic hero goes through a Lord Jim phase - nice images of the sea and Brad Pitt trading with the cannibals.
Anthony Hopkins, meanwhile, fed up at not having been able to show off his sporadic Irish accent decides to demonstrate his acting qualities by method acting his way through the sequels of a stroke - one half of his face refuses to move, an arm and a leg too, language is difficult, an Irish accent especially so.
But the film is not finished yet, with bootlegging and politics and drama a-plenty still to come.
The culmination is when everyone has to choose a Wyatt Earp character and take their places at the OK corral. But even that is eclipsed by our native American going native in a fitting final scene. By this time the audience has either left or is laughing all the way to the toilet.
1 point for the lovely mountains. 1 point for the lovely Julia Ormond.