almost but not quite

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2019)

This is nearly a very good film. The opening battle is great, and the bear attack scene something genuinely new (to me anyway). It brings the American frontier wilderness to life in a way no other film has done - there are a few quibbles about historical accuracy, but who cares about that? It misses greatness because the ending takes too long and is not quite right - it's a pulp novelist's ending rather than a film maker's, a little bit pretentious and unsatisfying. As someone once said about Unforgiven, the Western must always revert to type. In other words, what we need is catharsis.