Rust: Legende des Westens

This one's ratings are a victim of politics. That and limited attention spans.

This is a worth watching. Great scenery, fine acting, an engaging and memorable story.

Westerns aren't for everyone. I suppose what is slow to one person is called character building to another. The pacing is fine. Each scene adds a little more and builds momentum.

I don't want to talk about the politics and bad faith reviews, so I'm not. Nor do I think the reviews repeatedly calling it "slow" are fair. It's set in a time when the pace of life was different. When traveling from one place to the next took time, and the people you met along the way might be dangerous.

I can browse through a list of movies to watch and spot plenty of what isn't for me. I almost skipped this one because I assumed it was a bunch of Baldwin nonsense. But it's just fine. Heavier atmosphere, action on the more intense side of things, characters with character.

7.9/10.

Joel Souza's Rust, finally seeing release in 2025 after a tumultuous and tragic production, arrives with a weight of expectation and somber reflection. The film itself, a Western centered on an outlaw grandfather and his estranged grandson on the run, attempts to capture the rugged beauty and inherent dangers of the American frontier. Souza's direction leans into the stark landscapes and the simmering tensions between its characters, aiming for a raw and authentic portrayal of a harsh and unforgiving era. The narrative, while familiar in its Western tropes, seeks to explore themes of family, legacy, and the cyclical nature of violence against the backdrop of a dusty, unforgiving landscape.

Alec Baldwin, in the lead role, delivers a performance that is both weathered and weary, embodying the grizzled outlaw with a palpable sense of history and regret. His portrayal anchors the film, providing a focal point for the unfolding drama and the grandson's coming-of-age journey amidst perilous circumstances. The supporting cast, while perhaps overshadowed by the film's production context, contributes to the authenticity of the setting, populating the frontier with believable and often desperate individuals. The film's visual style emphasizes the natural environment, utilizing wide shots to capture the vastness and isolation of the setting, contrasted with close-ups that highlight the emotional toll on its characters.

However, it's impossible to divorce the viewing experience from the tragic on-set incident that resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. This shadow inevitably hangs over the film, coloring every scene and performance with a layer of unintended poignancy. While Souza bravely returns to complete his vision, the film's artistic merits are constantly juxtaposed with the real-world tragedy that occurred during its making. This creates a complex and often uncomfortable viewing experience, where appreciation for the filmmaking is intertwined with a profound sense of loss and the ethical considerations surrounding its release.

Despite the inherent challenges, Rust as a film showcases moments of genuine cinematic merit. Souza's commitment to telling this particular story of familial bonds and survival in the Old West is evident in the film's pacing and atmosphere. There are sequences that effectively build tension and capture the brutality of the era. The performances, particularly Baldwin's, offer glimpses of the intended emotional depth. Yet, the pervasive awareness of the tragedy remains an undeniable element of the film's reception, shaping its legacy in ways that no artistic critique can fully address.

Ultimately, Rust is a film that exists in a complex space, its narrative achievements forever intertwined with the real-life tragedy that marred its production. While Joel Souza manages to deliver a Western with moments of compelling storytelling and strong performances, the film's release serves as a stark reminder of the human cost of filmmaking. It's a viewing experience that demands not only critical assessment but also a degree of somber reflection on the events that overshadowed its creation.

Although Rust starts off with a slower pace and a few rough edges-some scenes admittedly reveal the film's limited budget-it steadily gains momentum, evolving into a compelling story of family, redemption, and grit. What begins as a modest Western transforms into a character-driven narrative with emotional depth and moral complexity.

Alec Baldwin delivers a surprisingly nuanced performance as the flawed but fascinating deuteragonist. He brings an authenticity to the role that makes his character both detestable and oddly sympathetic, a balance that few actors can pull off so effectively. The film's attention to period detail adds a strong sense of place, immersing viewers in a time when justice and loyalty often came at a high price.

While Rust may face criticism, much of it will likely miss the film's strengths like its cast and the emotionally satisfying arc it ultimately delivers. For fans of the Western genre looking for something a bit off the beaten path, Rust is absolutely worth the watch.

Set in 1882 in the Wyoming Territory, Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott) despite his young age looks after both his younger brother Jacob (Easton Malcolm) and his family homestead after the loss of his mother to fever and his father to suicide. When Lucas accidentally shoots another homesteader with whom he had a feud due to his sons bullying his brother, Lucas is arrested and sentenced by a local jury to be hung by the neck until dead. The night before Lucas' execution, a stranger named Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin) storms the jail and takes Lucas with him and reveals himself to be Lucas' grandfather who has lived his life on the run as an outlaw. As the two travel southward with Harland intent on getting Lucas to safety in Mexico, the two are marked with $1,000 bounty which puts them in the sights of opportunistic bounty hunters including fanatically driven Fenton "Preacher" Lang (Travis Fimmel) and disillusioned U. S. Marshall Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) who following the death of his son to fever has lost his belief in justice.

Rust is a 2024 western film written and directed by Joel Souza from a story written by star and producer Alec Baldwin. The film marks the second time Souza and Baldwin have worked together as Baldwin had actually served as a producer on Souza's previous film Crown Vic which Baldwin had been slated to star in before contractual obligations saw him vacate the role. Eager to work with Souza again, the two collaborated on Souza's screenplay Rust which although initially written as a father/son story was rewritten to being about a grandfather so Baldwin could play the role. Shot as an independent production, Rust became the subject of a real-life tragedy and media storm when a prop gun provided by the film's armorer turned out to be loaded with real ammunition and wounded director Souza and fatally shot director of photography Halyna Hutchins. This incident resulted in renewed discussions about safety on film sets. I really don't want to rehash this as there's been enough of that with those involved as well as the inexcusable vulture like behaviors of cultural parasites who couldn't care less about those affected and only cared about generated hackneyed, regurgitated and insensitive memes to earn points in stupid culture wars while completely uncaring about the actual people whose lives were ended by this tragedy (one can only imagine the indignities Brandon Lee or Vic Morrow would endure had their tragedies happened today). Despite this and the civil and criminal legal fallout that befell the production, Rust resumed shooting due to contractual obligations with proceeds of the film's revenue going to Hutchins' survivors. After a long protracted road to release, Rust is certainly a handsomely produced and well-acted western, but it's also one where it owes a heavy debt to prior films of the genre.

When the film started I have to say that I was intrigued by the premise as it focused on young teenager Lucas taking care of his younger brother Jacob in the wake of their parents' death. Patrick Scott McDermott makes his film debut here having previously done some stage and TV work and he's honestly really good in the role and you buy him trying to be both a caring brother while also trying to serve as a parental figure to his brother Jacob. Honestly the first act is so good and so unique among westerns I honestly kind of wished that it had been more greatly expanded because it feels like it could've been a movie in and of itself but it's basically just used for setup before the actual story takes place later. Once Alec Baldwin's Harland Rust enters the film and rescues Lucas from jail, the movie basically ditches the setup of its opening act and only really circles back to it in the last few minutes. While Baldwin is good in the role of Rust playing an aging and hardened outlaw who now seeks to do one good thing to make up for a life of aimless drifting and violence, it basically leads to a mash-up of Unforgiven by way of News of the World. While the whole "coming of age"/emotional thaw arc they do with Lucas and Harland is decently acted, it does kind of feel clumsily grafted on when the first act established Lucas as someone who had taken on more adult roles before his time out of necessity even if it lead to things like the accidental death the instigated the plot so there's something of a schism between the first and second act that never feels fully resolved.

Intermixed with the scenes of Harland and Lucas are two other plots one involving a fanatical Christian bounty hunter named Fenton "Preacher" Lang played by Vikings alum Travis Fimmel and he's a really solid antagonist who carries himself as a man of faith while also indulging in all manner of sadistic or vile appetites while taking pride in his family history as slave catchers prior to the Civil War and it's a fun performance that calls to mind Robert Mitchum's iconic role as "Preacher" Harry Powell from The Night of the Hunter but he really doesn't show up as a direct threat to Harland and Lucas until the last act so he's massively underutilized as an antagonist. Then we have arguably the third lead in Josh Hopkins' Wood Helm, the burned out U. S. Marshall who's tracking Harland and Lucas and unlike the various other bounty hunters or opportunists the two encounter Helm takes no joy or even pride in his work and just does it because it's the only thing he does have after years of chasing outlaws and losing his son has eroded his will. In theory he's supposed to be something of a mirror to Harland where Harland carries the weight of years of outlaw violence, Wood carries the weight of dispatching justice of the Law with no real sense of pride or accomplishment because nothing ever became better from what he did. While I understand thematically while he's here, as a character in the plot he often feels extraneous and while some of the interactions between him and his posse are engaging, they also create a very staccato rhythm in the flow of the story without much payoff character-wise for him.

Rust is a movie that clearly had grand ambitions, but it's also a story that suffers from being overly familiar and too unfocused and leaves its most promising elements unexplored while favored the more traveled path. It's well-acted and beautifully shot (partially credited to the final work of Hutchins) and assuming you are a fan of westerns there's plenty here to appreciate. In the shadow of a terrible tragedy, Rust emerges as a flawed film with interesting ideas that are placed secondary to familiar tropes.

I have written an unpublished book about the accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins and Joel Souza on the New Mexico set of Rust. My book is about how accidents happen, not the movie. I am not a fan of Westerns nor low budget movies but I enjoyed Rust. Joel Souza surprised me with a well written movie, a depth of characters and morality that I did not expect. Wood Helm and Lucas Rust characters were well acted and Alec Baldwin never over shadowed his co-stars in a reserved portrayal of a broken man. I hope everyone pays to see Rust. Any proceeds go to Halyna Hutchins per an end of credits video. Halyna's death was a terrible accident caused by many foreseeable and unforeseeable events. Tragic if people feel it does not honor Ms. Hutchins going to see the movie.