End of the Rope

First thing first. Objectively speaking, the movie is good on all technical levels. It's also a good re-telling of an historical fact.

I've read someone saying "the fire at the beggining is all fiction" this is not true. The fiction is that being the sheriff's family. But it's recorded "the Schafer community also believed Bannon murdered three children of another family he had worked for and burnt their house". You can even google this if you don't believe me.

So basically, the adaptation of real facts is not "fiction" in a way that deserves critique. All movies based on a true story "stretch" the truth a bit to fit it in the narrative. But overall, you can't tell me this movie doesn't actually attempt to depict the facts of the town with sincerity.

It should be told, that the movie doesn't take a strong stance regarding lynching and the death penalty. It just narrates the story, and shows you the grim reality of it all. There's no propaganda involved. It's very objective in this regard, which I respect.

It's not a movie I regret watching. But It's not a movie I'll rewatch a lot. Everything on it was good. But you can't the deny the movie is slow. Too slow for it's own good. The movie would've worked better with a runtime of 1h:30 minutes. Or as a miniseries divided into three weekly episodes. It's a good docu-film. It's just not a fun movie to watch. You can watch the first hour easily. But I had to watch the second hour the day after.

Direction, character design, and overall performances were solid.

The villain stood out with a commendable performance, and I genuinely wished the film had placed greater emphasis on his role especially his dialogue and confrontation scenes with the protagonist.

The direction, music, and visual design were also strong, and the plot itself felt grounded and believable.

However, the film lacked soul and emotional depth from the supporting cast. It also suffered from a lack of dynamic secondary characters that could have added variety and complexity.

Ultimately, I feel disappointed, as this was a missed opportunity to create something truly exceptional, given how many strong elements were already in place.

What could've been a decent movie based on a true event was just a torturous watch, I don't know if my ears will recover. I should've turned it off but, a true story always gets me. Especially since it was "western" type. While the acting, story, set, etc. Was decent, the sound (music) was way overdone and too loud. While I appreciate a good soundtrack & score, this was just the pits. Score was decent, volume was extremely overbearing. Mumbling actors, low volume voices, and a score that covered it all up. Too bad subtitles weren't available. The buildup in the beginning was stretched beyond its need to get to the point of the sullen, despaired sheriff. Any scene meant to draw out emotion, empathy or feeling for the characters/situation was for naught due to the loudness of the music. Whoever did the audio should be ashamed and probably needs to find a new career. Whoever made this movie can thank the audio team for ruining your movie.

Only watch it you have subtitles available and can tune a decent score down unfortunately.

The last 20 seconds of the ending film credits tells it all, it is a work of fiction. Sadly, I was really looking forward to this film, as I read the book, but I was really disappointed for many reasons. Both sides of my family for 3 generations lived in the Watford City, ND area, and many generations of both sides of my family are buried in the Schafer Cemetery. I grew-up hearing about the brutal Bannon crimes committed on the Haven family farm, who are also buried in the Schafer Cemetery. The film is entirely too long and slow. The invented fire backstory was fiction, and only made Bannon seem sympathetic, which historically he was not! Charles Bannon, by my relatives firsthand accounts, was a greedy, ruthless murderer of men, women, and children. The code of silence from the lynching in and around Schafer and Watford City, North Dakota persists until today, almost 93 years later. My grandfather showed me photos of Bannon in a Watford City museum when I was young, and he appeared to be the embodiment of evil. Conversely, the actor in this film looked like an alter boy. This film was a REAL missed opportunity to tell a truly tragic history, and while laws were broken, justice prevailed. Hopefully, someday, there will be a more historically accurate and chilling 'reboot' of this film and story.

After watching a disaster last week I was very cautious this week... this time the Western was watchable and I could say: a pleasant one to watch, regardless the low budget and the length!

In spite of the somewhat harsh lighting and editing, Charlie Griak's cinematography was not too bad, and the actors in this film give a respectful and honest rendition of a disturbingly real-life event, with dialogue that feels genuine rather than the paint-by-numbers dross that has become the norm in Hollywood over the past ten years.

Unfortunately, I doubt that this film will ever receive the 'box office' respect that its effort deserves... so, enjoy it while it's still out there...