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Revisiting that good old fashioned classic Western, best made by none other than Clint Eastwood (even when he called it "Dirty Harry"). Here, however, the genre is used only as a setting for a parable about the good and evil, and the fine line between them, which is never as clear cut as we think.
A widower with small children, who was once a celebrated gunslinger or an infamous killer (depending on who you ask) is hired to avenge a prostitute disfigured by an unsatisfied client, along with a reckless and shortsighted young man who still has illusions and an old black friend (Morgan Freeman). What begins as an attempt to make easy money evolves into a bloody battle between the three and the friends of the client and the tough town sheriff (Gene Hackman, no addition necessary). Seemingly a simple Western plot, but every time Eastwood talks about his late saintly wife who made him see the error of his way and turned him on to the right path, there's a sense that if the lady was still standing by his side, he would have grabbed her and choked her with his own hands. This is why they make sure to point out at the beginning that she did die, but not by his hands. All he needed was a little push to cross the line, and he received it, and the fire which lay dormant inside him just exploded. |