Sweetwater

Ed Harris is having a great time and the viewer shares that enjoyment in this fantastic western. For those who long for a return of "Deadwood" this film should ease your withdrawals for a short time. The cast is uniformly excellent, the cinematography is wonderful and the writing is great. The only shortcoming, for those who like their westerns with a dose of spaghetti, is the soundtrack music. Bloody, violent and lots of fun. Ed Harris deserves much praise. The bleakness of the landscape is quite realistic. You can almost taste the dust and dirt in the air. Much of the secondary cast is also made up of very talented actors. A must watch for fans of true westerns.

This western is good because it has simple details of everyday menial experiences brought into magnified observation like the Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarentino incorporate into their films that people personally identify with. Very good writing and directing. The character behavior is realistic for the period with a unique cast of established actors that have a track record of rolls in unusual movies similar to No Country for Old Men. January Jones, Ed Harris, and Mr. Root, the judge, from Justified, add the quirky features you will find worth your time. This is a no-nonsense simple story of detective work with refreshing deviance from stupid Hollywood fare.

"The Lord does not believe in actions without consequences." The New Mexico territory in the late 1800's is full of danger. When Sarah, a young wife (Jones) encounters the local preacher (Isaacs) and a sheriff (Harris) who isn't totally sane. When she refuses the preacher's advances her life is forever changed. Now with the help of the sheriff she sets out for revenge, and you know what they say about a woman scorned. I am a huge Ed Harris fan and I like westerns but lately the genre has been in a huge nose dive so I wasn't sure what to expect from this. This is easily one of the better ones that have come out lately but it is still a little slow moving. 90% of the reason this is good is the cast. Harris is good in everything, Isaacs is the most disturbing preacher since Michael Parks played one in Red State. The gem of the movie though is January Jones. For once she isn't just the eye candy of the movie, she actually has a needed part and the fact that it is her that loses it and goes on a killing spree makes it that much more interesting. If you are a western fan this is one to watch. Don't expect something like Open Range though, this is more like Appaloosa or 3:10 To Yuma or for you real movie fiends out there, if you liked Seraphim Falls you will like this. Overall, started off slow but really picked up and by the end you are glad you watched it. One of the better westerns in the last few years. I give it a B.

when you watched this film. there were many gibberish mambo-jumbo religious crappy monologue or crazy enough talk-to-himself murmurings. and the directing was also quite weird as the film itself. there was an usual cunning vicious and violent religious bully who thought all the vast land was his lord and his own property. he committed murder after murder under the name and excuse of the lord and at the same time whenever he reached the climax when he screwed his female followers, he also praised the lord for his ultimate pleasure(guess why all the men and women would cry out in unison 'oh, my god, oh my god' is indeed a Christian mantra during intercourse or love-making?)

this is a very weird movie, an out-of-the-box very unconventional western, at times funny and ruthless, sometimes clueless and ridiculous. but what made this film above the cheap low budget western genre B movies was 1) most of the actors did great jobs and performed so well that didn't give you a cheap feeling of the average tasteless low budget and disgusting modern day western B movies; 2) the great cinematography of the camera, the wide angle wildness of the landscape, the beautiful light setting control. just by watching the glamorous camera works would worth the money and earned at least 8 stars; 3) although the screenplay was a bit over the top ridiculous, but still quite watchable, good enough to anchor your fat buttocks firmly on the seat to the end. again, a weird mindless clueless absurdity sometimes is not a bad idea.

This movie might not be like the usual old school westerns but I surely enjoyed it. As an atheist I already hated the priest/prophet Josiah from the first minute I saw him. And him being a racist as well he was the perfect character to hate. Jason Isaacs puts down a good performance playing the villain prophet. Ed Harris as the lunatic sheriff Jackson is also great in his role. And so is January Jones as Sarah Ramírez, the former prostitute that goes on a killing spree as revenge. I thought the whole cast did a good job. The story was well written, started slowly but build up to a climax. Certainly one of the better westerns I have seen lately.