Best durn western of the year!...

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2005)

...or it might as well be, based upon the majority of comments I've read so far. It's a good movie "fer sure" and very much like "Unforgiven". The characters are well-developed, if not necessarily likable. The dialog is crisp, sometimes even sparse, yet tells the story. The production values are similarly lean, lending a nice edge to the look and feel of the production (less than 40 days!).
Yet people are reviewing this as if it were THE GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME (did so many "ten counts" in the movie lead to all the "10s" in the voting?) and others label it the work of the Anti-Christ because of the depiction of euthanasia. And to the majority of the movie critics: the "surprise twist" is a great surprise if you only watch family movies from Hollywood. Give me a break, it's a drama about boxing! The only surprise is in who doesn't end up in "critical" condition.
How about going to a movie, suspending disbelief (a little) and letting the director take you someplace else? How about not rating or judging a movie based upon how well it meets your fondest dreams? How about fewer rhetorical questions?
I can't wait for the sequel about "Danger" Barch.