Western Religion

The film surprised me by starting off as a shoot 'em up, then gradually transforming into a spiritual film. Without giving too much away, the group of gunfighters, charlatans, harlots, and occult types that gather to compete in a poker tournament in an old mining town, gradually realize they are in a battle for something more profound. The movie has a peculiar fable-like feel, in that you can take what's happening on a surface level, or read more into it if you make the connections. There is a stylized aspect to it, which includes the performances, from the gunslinging madame Bess and her carpenter suitor Bobby Shea, to the Clint Eastwood like Preacher Saint John and the carnival barker Harvard Gold, who runs the town. There's some compelling mystical types, too, such as the Ben Kenobi-like Indian who guides one of the half Indian gunfighters, and a magician/trickster named Raven, who may or may not know alchemy. But the performances that drove this home for me were Anton Stice, played with creepy mystical perfection by Claude Duhamel, and the hilarious dandy Salt Peter, who had me in stitches. This is the kind of movie you can watch many times and get something different from it with each viewing.

A sign outside the town says "Religion, AZ." AZ is a zip code designation that began in 1963. The sign should have said, "Religion, Ariz."

Sometimes you can't believe that you sat through a whole movie and this is one of them. Religion is a fine example of the contempt that many Movie/TV execs have for the viewing public. Religion is a prime example of how a script written in a drug induced haze, thrown together quickly using no name actors, cheap sets poor acting, and even worse direction can still get airtime. It felt strangely Canadian. The high point in it, funny enough, was the flamboyant performance of the quirky character of Salt Peter who seemed more out of place in a western than any of the other weird characters.

I think this can be best described as a good effort. The acting is terrible, how some of these "actors" got their jobs I'll never understand. They shouldn't ever even perform in a commercial. Other than the, at times, terrible dialogue though, writer and director James O'Brien actually does a good job. The soundtrack is decent and flows nicely along with the plot. The premise is good though I really wish it had a better budget to get the best out of it. Mostly it's the awful acting that brings my score down. I think it's a shame really. If you're bored and you like Westerns I'd recommend you give it a go, despite my problems with the lack of talented actors it somehow managed to hold my attention till the end. So it can't be all bad.

I dunno what to make of this flick. For the first 15 minutes or so, all I could think was "are they serious, or is someone playing a joke on me?"

It's like some high school trust fund kid bought a couple of expensive cameras, wrote a script in 2 hours, then asked all his friends and relatives to act in it.

It doesn't get better, though 2-3 members of the cast actually do quite a respectable job with the painful lines they were given. The rest of the cast must have made a wrong turn on the way to the porn set, and stumbled into this one by mistake. I suspect part of this is due to the director, though, as the entire thing feels like a live-action cartoon.

AND YET:

I actually kinda' enjoyed it. (watching for free, late at night, too tired to get any work done & so just vegging out.) The cinematography, sound, and even the soundtrack are all actually quite excellent. That trust-fund kid must have hired the best PD in Hollywood.

The basic plot isn't bad either, (though it takes an awfully long time to get to any sort of, you know, point) so the flick does move along in an entertaining way.

Very, very strange. I find it hard to even give it a rating.