It was kind of a western, but not as hardcore serious western as the reviews might lead you to believe. It was simple, and I was strangely detached from the...I suppose you may call him a hero, because in this movie, Christian Bale bares an eerie resemblance to that scientology Voldemort of the screen, Tom Crusise. I had a hard time getting past that, maybe, or maybe they just didn't do a good job of connecting the viewer to the character. Honestly my money's on the later. Bale's performance, and perhaps Bale's character on the page lacked significantly in any likability. In fact, the film as a whole kept us at arms length, only occasionally drawing us in with the charismatic stylings of our master mind criminal, Russel Crowe. Even he, however could neither get you to really like him, or hate him. Whereas I think the director was going for more that you were supposed to BOTH like him AND hate him. His right hand man brought a bit of intrigue towards the beginning of the film, but it went no where. The addition of Firefly's Wash was appreciated, and he played Wash, as a late 1800s doctor.
All in all though, it left me feeling my usual Western-movie after feeling. A desire to wear leather, swear like doc Holiday (fuck Tombstone was good), complain about the state of people today, and be the leader of a well-dressed group of other leather wearing folks. There was pretty much nothing to this movie at all, never the less I enjoyed it.
Spoilerish stuff ahead
Wash's death however came much too soon. His character would have definitely added some entertainment to the last half hour. I wonder if he doesn't have a contract which states his death must always be proceeded by a witty line.
Finally the ending move of redemption fell both flat and thin, as nothing in the plot led us to any sort of real deep conflict inside Russel Crowe, nor did his final actions seem to really make up for the horrible deeds of his past. In fact it would seem they only added to his St. Peter's Book body count.
[/spoiler-ish stuff]
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