The Last Outlaw

The Last Outlaw

I don't think they could have got a better cast if they tried, you just have to look at the stars in this film to show that, Mickey Rourke, Steve Buscemi, Ted Levine, Keith David, John C. McKinley and the wasted Dermot Mulrony who a lot of western fans will remember him for one of his early roles as Dirty Steve in Young Guns. I saw this when it came out on video in the mid nineties and films that went straight to video back in the nineties were great like Surviving the Game, Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man etc and the Last outlaw was the same. The beginning of the film is a blatantly obvious homage to the beginning of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch where they rob the bank and the town's sheriff and his men are waiting for them to have a huge gun battle. But the film really starts when Dermot Mulrony shoot's the leader of the pack Graff (Mickey Rourke) for trying to execute one of there men and that's when the films suddenly becomes a revenge story. Of course Graff survives and is picked up by the posse hunting them down and instead and giving himself up he ends up offering the posse to actually be there leader and hunt down his own men for leaving his for dead. From there it's like a cat and mouse western which doesn't stop till the end credits and it really delves into the story of leadership. You have fine performances here from Mickey Rourke as the sadistic Graff but the films goes to Dermot Mulrony as the desperate Eustos who battles with thought of whether what he did was right as his men are picked off one by one. This film ain't no Good the Bad and the Ugly but it definitely bests any John Wayne film ever made (I'm an obvious John Wayne Hater).

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

For a modern Western movie this is very decent, considering we're talking a TV movie here this is very much above average. I really have a hard time understanding why this movie's rating isn't much higher as 5,7. Sure, this is no 'Unforgiven' or 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly', but i don't think it pretends to be. This is just a fast-paced, violent action flick, which 'borrows' some elements from famous westerns and well, it works! I've seen this movie more then once, and it caught my full attention each and every time. As mentioned in a lot of these reviews Mickey Rourke is really great here. He's tough, he's mean, and he almost perfectly imitates Clint Eastwood's frown in close-ups. But the character I like most in this movie is Potts, played by Ted Levine. He's so dirty you can almost smell him, and he delivers some very cool lines. If you want to see a fun adventurous western movie i really recommend this one.

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."

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.