Rust

I have written an unpublished book about the accidental shooting of Halyna Hutchins and Joel Souza on the New Mexico set of Rust.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.

Not watching this movie would be denying the work/art that Halyna Hutchins created and was her final legacy. I wanted to watch and see what she did as a female cinematographer. I had a feeling she would be very good and she did not disappoint. I like westerns for the scenery and horses. Halyna did many great sky scenes that were beautiful and reminded me of the cinematography in the movie Nomadland which was the first movie to highlight natural sky scenes. The Rust script wasn't bad and I found Harlan Rust's dialogue to be quite witty---many Rust-isms that were decent. There are many movies out recently that are a lot worse---especially the constant horror movies to satiate the younger crowd. This film is not for ADD, immature young people who want to act out during Minecraft or believe in vampires. If you loved Dances With Wolves, Yellowstone--it is like a good episode that won't win any awards but is still worth viewing.

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.

Definitely worth the watch. Good acting, good story line, and it was all well done. I didn't find it slow at all. Captured our attention from the start, and the characters all made you sympathize with each of them in one way or another. They were all likeable, too. Would watch it again, and would recommend to anyone.

I get the politics around the release of the film, but this review is about the film, not any particular point of view.

If you don't agree with it being released, then don't watch it. But don't give it a poor rating because you don't agree with something that has nothing to do with the film itself.

I'm going to judge this movie based on its storytelling, acting, directing, and cinematography - not on what I think of Alec Baldwin as a person or the tragic incident onset.

Story: I think it was fine. It might not be the most compelling of story, but it was good enough for me - meaning it was engaging for the most part. There were some things that didn't make sense to me, but it's not a major gripe.

Acting: I liked everyone is this film. Even the kid(s) were ok. Shout out to Travis Fimmel - I'm glad he's getting better roles since the Viking series - Richard Gunn, and Francis Fisher. I felt that their portrayals were outstanding.

Directing: Also good, IMO. There weren't any fillers or wasted shots, I thought. The actions were quite good, as well - I knew where everyone was at all times and what was happening. As were the dialogues and the quieter moments.

Cinematography: Montana is simply beautiful. I wished there had been more wide vista shots, but it's a quibble. Generally, what we had were good and established well the period and locations.

Overall: 7.5.