Let me be clear up front that I liked a lot of things about this movie, and thought it was worth watching. How could it not be with Delroy Lindo and Idris Elba in the cast?. But the movie had pacing and self-awareness problems that brought it down a star or two.
Incorporating the tropes and beats of the great Westerns without falling into cliche, mannerisms, or even parody and pastiche has been a problem for would-be great Western directors and screenwriters ever since the heyday of the Western passed. When it works due to the sheer energy of the proceedings and cast, you get "Silverado". And Clint Eastwood managed it in "Unforgiven".
But going with an all-black cast (except for some white spear carriers and incidental characters) presented the director with the meta-problem all over again, and I don't think he quite managed it. Too many of the establishing shots and face-offs quoted or referred to previous Westerns, and had the feel (to me) of "yeah, we're doing this too, only with an ALL BLACK CAST, baby!!"
Even more importantly, the need to make every single piece of dialog a tribute to and rewriting of the legacy of the great mainstream forebears seemed to make it necessary for the director to linger. Endlessly. On every. Utterance. Every. Character. Made.
So some scenes dragged a little, and I got restless when I should have been drinking things in.
And a movie that should clocked in at a bit under 2 hours took about 10 minutes longer than it should have because the director was trying to be Important, rather than intriguing.
And there were some plot-holes and logic failures here and there too (would ANY locomotive carrying a prisoner under military guard stop for a masked rider parking on the tracks when that is exactly the first step of a hijack or break out attempt? Nope, they would have relied on the cow-catcher to flip the beast and rider aside, not obligingly come to a stop.)
And most of the soundtrack wasn't to my taste (and yes, I am aware I wasn't the target audience, although I understood why they'd justify "Irie, Irie" style vocals and lyrics over the historic background.)
But still, I liked lots of this movie, especially the action sequences and the gunfights and the horse riding sequences. I would pay to see Lindo and Elbaread a laundry list. And the climactic ending was satisfying, if maybe a little too pat. (Also, I thought Rufus Buck gave up a little too easily at the end. If that's what he was always planning to do, he could have saved a lot of lives if he'd just done it in the first place.)
So: fine movie, not perfect. I'd gladly watch another by this director to see what else he has up his sleeve.
Worth your time if you really like Westerns or historical drama involving race and conflict.
Incorporating the tropes and beats of the great Westerns without falling into cliche, mannerisms, or even parody and pastiche has been a problem for would-be great Western directors and screenwriters ever since the heyday of the Western passed. When it works due to the sheer energy of the proceedings and cast, you get "Silverado". And Clint Eastwood managed it in "Unforgiven".
But going with an all-black cast (except for some white spear carriers and incidental characters) presented the director with the meta-problem all over again, and I don't think he quite managed it. Too many of the establishing shots and face-offs quoted or referred to previous Westerns, and had the feel (to me) of "yeah, we're doing this too, only with an ALL BLACK CAST, baby!!"
Even more importantly, the need to make every single piece of dialog a tribute to and rewriting of the legacy of the great mainstream forebears seemed to make it necessary for the director to linger. Endlessly. On every. Utterance. Every. Character. Made.
So some scenes dragged a little, and I got restless when I should have been drinking things in.
And a movie that should clocked in at a bit under 2 hours took about 10 minutes longer than it should have because the director was trying to be Important, rather than intriguing.
And there were some plot-holes and logic failures here and there too (would ANY locomotive carrying a prisoner under military guard stop for a masked rider parking on the tracks when that is exactly the first step of a hijack or break out attempt? Nope, they would have relied on the cow-catcher to flip the beast and rider aside, not obligingly come to a stop.)
And most of the soundtrack wasn't to my taste (and yes, I am aware I wasn't the target audience, although I understood why they'd justify "Irie, Irie" style vocals and lyrics over the historic background.)
But still, I liked lots of this movie, especially the action sequences and the gunfights and the horse riding sequences. I would pay to see Lindo and Elbaread a laundry list. And the climactic ending was satisfying, if maybe a little too pat. (Also, I thought Rufus Buck gave up a little too easily at the end. If that's what he was always planning to do, he could have saved a lot of lives if he'd just done it in the first place.)
So: fine movie, not perfect. I'd gladly watch another by this director to see what else he has up his sleeve.
Worth your time if you really like Westerns or historical drama involving race and conflict.