Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Ellen an unknown female gunslinger rides into a small dingy and depressing prairie town with a secret as to her reason for showing up. Shortly after her arrival a local preacher Cort is thrown through the saloon doors while townfolk are signing up for a gun competition. The pot is a huge sum of money and the only rule that you follow the rules of the man that set up the contest Herod. Herod is also the owner leader and ruler of the town. Seems hes arranged this little gunshowoff so that the preacher (who use to be an outlaw and rode with Herod) will have to fight again. Cort refuses to ever use a gun to kill again and Herod acknowledging Cort as one of the best is determined to alter this line of thinking ... even if it gets someone killed ...

Review

Like the western "Wild Bill" that also came out around this time this is a pretty wild almost cartoonlike western. It has many pluses and minuses.

GOOD Great sound interesting camera angles and very stylishly shot. The visuals and audio make it interesting alone. Add a simple but interesting story filled with wild cartoonlike characters and you have a fun fastmoving film. Western purists will hate the movie because it's filled with overthetop characters. The most interesting I thought was Gene Hackman as the villain and Russell Crowe as the goodguy "preacher" named "Cort." Sharon Stone's character "Ellen" is very reminiscent of the one she played in "The Specialist" a movie which came out the previous year in which as in this movie revenge is her main motive.

BAD This is only bad if you are religiouslyinclined. The "preacher" in here is questionable as such. No real preacher uses the Lord's name in vain which Crowe did twice here. His theology also is not Biblically more like clueless Hollywood stereotypes. Also there was a bit too much of the feminist slant in here. Then again since Stone coproduced the film it's not surprising. Actually her character especially when she begins to soften a bit is interesting too.

OVERALL Despite the usual bias the movie is fun to watch and entertaining.