Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Product Description
1865: James Conners returns home to the town of Legend, New Mexico to avenge his father's death at the hand of the ruthless Will Tunney. Along the way he recaptures his long-lost love Mary Cooper and together they set in motion a chain of events that will change both their lives.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
The trouble with watching most modern day westerns, with a few notable exceptions, is that they make you pine for the old days. This film is a case in point. After recently watching the diabolically bad recent western "Defiance", I was hoping for much better with "Age of the Gunslinger". Well, it was an improvement of sorts, but that is not saying much against possibly the worlds worst film. This is not a big budget film, which is apparent from early in the film. But a small budget does not prevent innovative directors from making a good film, just look at the little miracles that Budd Boetticher made in the late fifties and early sixties. But sadly the director Dean Alioto is no Boetticher, and although the film starts off reasonably enough, it rapidly nose dives like a meteor into possibly one of the most contrived and maudlin endings I have seen in a long time.
The film concerns a young boy whose church pastor father is shot by a local thug. When the killer gets away with this murder, the lad unable to carry out retribution runs away. In the subsequent Civil War and from further experiences as a bounty hunter, he learns the way of the knife and the gun. It is with revenge in his heart that he returns to the town of Legend, but his childhood sweetheart reminds him of his past teachings. Unfortunately his fathers murderer, who is now the town mayor, doesn't read his bible or fight to Marquess of Queensbury rules. Things become very complicated, and rather inevitably violent for our young hero.
The early part of the film is full of interesting possibilities, with the boys religious background perhaps conflicting with his natural desire to exact vengeance. But this theme of the struggle between vengeance and forgiveness is never fully explored, sadly wasting what was a golden opportunity. Instead the film rapidly descends into silly oblivion. There is a friendship between our hero and a Navajo Indian brother and sister, that is included for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps the director was running out of ideas and thought it was time to bring in the Indians as back up. The ending then unashamedly borrows from a rather famous Ridley Scott film, with a sickly and catastrophic result. The only redeeming feature is Angus MacFadyen, who does a rather amusing Marlon Brando impersonation as the chief heavy. The rest of the acting is pale in comparison. This is poor fare in comparison to recent westerns like "Open Range" and "The assassination of Jesse James etc etc". If you like quality westerns this is probably best avoided. The search continues!
The film concerns a young boy whose church pastor father is shot by a local thug. When the killer gets away with this murder, the lad unable to carry out retribution runs away. In the subsequent Civil War and from further experiences as a bounty hunter, he learns the way of the knife and the gun. It is with revenge in his heart that he returns to the town of Legend, but his childhood sweetheart reminds him of his past teachings. Unfortunately his fathers murderer, who is now the town mayor, doesn't read his bible or fight to Marquess of Queensbury rules. Things become very complicated, and rather inevitably violent for our young hero.
The early part of the film is full of interesting possibilities, with the boys religious background perhaps conflicting with his natural desire to exact vengeance. But this theme of the struggle between vengeance and forgiveness is never fully explored, sadly wasting what was a golden opportunity. Instead the film rapidly descends into silly oblivion. There is a friendship between our hero and a Navajo Indian brother and sister, that is included for no reason whatsoever. Perhaps the director was running out of ideas and thought it was time to bring in the Indians as back up. The ending then unashamedly borrows from a rather famous Ridley Scott film, with a sickly and catastrophic result. The only redeeming feature is Angus MacFadyen, who does a rather amusing Marlon Brando impersonation as the chief heavy. The rest of the acting is pale in comparison. This is poor fare in comparison to recent westerns like "Open Range" and "The assassination of Jesse James etc etc". If you like quality westerns this is probably best avoided. The search continues!
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A pleasant enough western that you would probably not rush to watch again. The villain, (Angus Macfadyen) brings some pace and gravitas to a film that otherwise remains quite ordinary to say the least. The central theme is the tension between the desire to avenge a murdered father (William Sadler) who is a preacher and the father's dying wish that his son (Justin Ament) remain true to the gospel message of forgiveness. This theme is constant but not explicit. The film fails to fully explore or really develop this theme. The wronged son suffers periods of anguish and torment, but the theme and the acting of it suffers from a lack of depth. It is all very wooden and superficial. It has none of the power, drama, or tension that one can find in westerns such as 'Warlock' or 'High Noon' for example. The opportunity to develop the theme within the character development itself is missed. For me, this is a western that I would summarise as quite predictable and the viewer can be fairly certain of where the story line is going. It contains less tension and high drama than 'The Waltons' or 'Happy Days'. It has a central love story theme that will appeal to many, I would suggest the ladies more than the men, and I have no wish to appear sexist. As the film progresses the storyline becomes increasingly weaker and in my opinion only Angus Macfadyen saves the film from total collapse. At the end of the film, I found myself saying, 'they are not going to do what I think they are going to do are they?' They did, and for me it sealed the fate of the film. My advice would be to also read other reviews. Many are more favourable than mine. You may enjoy the film. It may be your type of western, it was not mine.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
After playing the game Red Dead Redemption I was in the mood for watching some westerns, I saw this on the shelf at work and thought for the price once discount to give it a go. And you know what, it aint half bad, major movie houses with budgets in the millions have made far worse, the acting is good and solid, theres actually a story and it made sense. The cover makes it look action packed, what with the flames, it is action packed but their isn't a fire, nothing get burned down and the ending is a bit naff. All in all one worth watching if you like westerns.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
