The Last Outlaw - Gnadenlose Jagd

An interesting cast does their best, with some material borrowed from Peckinpaugh and Leone. We get the closeups, and the blood spurting slow motion, along with some genuine tension. Mickey Rourke's character is menacing in an almost mystical way. What is not so good is that one must suspend disbelief, when the posse makes Mickey Rourke their new leader, when men seem to take endless bloody gunshots with little effect, and the distracting, out of place use of four letter words. The scenery is stunning, camera work above average, along with some acceptable acting. I consider "The Last Outlaw" to be a slightly above average western. - MERK

I recall this film since way back to its debut on HBO where it was produced for the small screen. The Last Outlaw might have seemed like a throw-away effort back in those days as many of us were still mesmerized by the character-driven epic Unforgiven. With The Last Outlaw, the emphasis is clearly on action and suspense. Nobody is attempting to re-define the genre with this picture. The film was written by Eric Red, and directed by Geoff Murphy. The films these men are associated with often rely on action and violence to get their message through. This film is no different.

The film begins with an obvious homage to the opening moments of The Wild Bunch. A posse of desperadoes, this one led by Mickey Rourke, rides brazenly into a small town with the intent of robbing a bank. And just like in The Wild Bunch, there is a group of men ready and waiting for them. A violent shootout complete with explosions ensues, and the gang is forced to ride out of town in a hurry. They are shot up and bleeding, but at least they got the money! Once the gang is safely out of town, they stop and regroup. Tensions between leader Rourke and his lieutenant Dermot Mulroney quickly boil over about leaving a wounded man behind. Rourke is shot and left for dead. But he sure as heck isn't dead. The rest of the film details the remaining gang members' attempt to flee to Mexico with a posse from the town hot on their trail. And Rourke, through some interesting complications, finds himself reincarnated as THE POSSE'S leader! Nothing will stop him from hunting his old gang down and killing them off one by one! Dozens of gunshot victims from both sides are soon strewn across the New Mexico countryside.

The film has a lot going for it. The cast is uncommonly talented for such a film simply made for cable. Rourke is as good as ever. Mulroney has never impressed me as an actor, but he sure looks like real a cowboy.Great support from Ted Levine, John C. McGinley, and Steve Buscemi, among others. Even the guy who plays Fraker in Death Wish 3 has a part as a cocky town marshal. The scenery of the countryside surrounding Sante Fe is quite breathtaking, and the DVD transfer makes it look even better than it did on cable. Most of the cowboys in this film are said to be former Confederate soldiers. Many still wear items from their old CSA uniforms. And there is talk of how Union soldiers raped and murdered Rourke's wife and daughters while he was off fighting. This is perhaps what made him such a hardened killer. This angle is likely inspired from Eastwood's Josey Wales character, though it is common knowledge that many of the Confederacy's more violent types headed west after the war since there was nothing left for them back home.

The film has some flaws, as it is not a true classic of the genre. Some of the action is truncated, and gunfights are often used simply to trim down the number of active characters so we the audience can hopefully keep up with them all. It looks like many of the horses on this set were perhaps treated pretty rough. Many stunts involve horses falling to the ground or having to climb treacherous hillsides. I just hope none were killed like they were on the set of Heaven's Gate. Also, Keith David's character was a bit out of place. Not because he's a black man with a bunch of former rebels, but because they have him trying to use voodoo bones to predict who will die next. Kind of dumb, unless they would have developed it more. The film's brief running time just probably didn't make deep characterization possible for everyone. And it must be said that there are some VERY graphic killings for a western. People don't just simply get shot and we see them fall off their horse from thirty feet away. Some guys get turned into goo!! Overall this is a fun, and diverting western. Probably a bit better than it deserves to be. 8 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

Enjoyed the movie but was distracted everytime Mickey Rourke was on the screen. Why do people in Hollywood persist in having bad face-lifts? Not to be insulting but his character in this movie resembled 1980s pop music performers from androgynous pop and rock music bands. I kept thinking "What are Prince and the Revolution, and Michael Jackson doing in the Wild West."

In this movie I saw at least 10 great character actors whom I've seen in other movies, and their previous movies were pretty good.. when I read the cast-list for this movie I thought: "WOW, MAN!...this ROCKS!" - so I decided to see this so-called "Exciting Western"... And boy, was I disappointed...words cannot express my feelings of misery after watching this completely meaningless carnage... All these excellent actors, with all that potential, and what are they given?... a handful of cliché-lines, and then getting shot - usually some place where blood can spurt out in gallons, so there's something for the gorehounds!

Well, Mickey Rourke (Angel Heart) did a nice enough job...he portrayed their heinous criminal gang-leader very well, and did all he could do with this generic "Ten Little Indians"-inspired script..

Dermot Mulroney (Young Guns) as the second-in-command was somewhat decent in this role too...very sympathetic guy. Steve Buscemi (Reservoir Dogs) ...aw, man... my favorite actor in this semistar-studded cast... I thought his character had some interesting background-information (wearing the army hat and rambling about their previous adventures), but we never really get a chance to know his character before he "exits" (it was fairly obvious, as soon as he started to talk about his "Hacienda" and his future plans, etc).

Keith David (The Thing), plays a seemingly cool guy, but suddenly he turns crazy for some reason, I didn't understand what the hell happened to him... the movie had this sense of "mystery" throughout, as though Rourke's character had supernatural abilities.... Not quite "The Quick and the Dead", but more like "The Superfast and the Soon-to-be-Dead".

John C. McGinley (Scrubs), I've always liked this guy...but he doesn't make sense in this movie either.. why does he have to be a 'knife-man'... when he NEVER even uses the knife for anything, other than accidentally cutting himself...and the 'traitor'-part...money out of the window? Such a stupid script.. All the others are great actors, but they're all totally wasted in this feeble adventure... the sheriff, the banker, the possé, EVERYONE gets it...except...well, you figure it out for yourself.

Other great actors in this flick: Ted Levine (Silence of the Lambs), Daniel Quinn (Scanner Cop), Gavan O'Herlihy (Lonesome Dove), Richard Fancy (Seinfeld), Paul Ben-Victor (Tombstone), and many more!

But in some sense, I still liked it, because of the great locations, and some good scenes (where people die, of course)... They probably won't make a sequel to this, but a PREQUEL would certainly kick more ass than this did! A movie where the gang of these intriguing characters go berserk and raid banks and stuff, and how we get to see their development, etc.

I orginally gave this 5/10, but will up the rating to 7/10 because....well, because I liked the cast, and gore is always somewhat entertaining.. and cowboys are so rugged and cool!

When I first saw this movie I thought "what is Mickey Rourke doing making himself look slightly homosexual as a cowboy outlaw"!!? As I watched the movie though, it didn't matter how he looked, he was deadly. Probably the only criminal cowboy who could get away with that "dandy" look. I thought that the entire cast was great in their own parts, but once again, as with every movie he is in, Mickey Rourke stood out. It was back in the day, when I chanced upon watching "Rumble Fish", with Matt Dillon, Dennis Hopper, and (my then personal favorite), William Smith, that I noticed the Motorcycle Boy. He stole that movie, no problem. From then on out, it was because of Mickey Rourke that I watched any movie he was listed in. He is like the greatest American actor EVER.