Cassidy Red

We often wonder, and talk that there could heaps of great artists hidden, not getting the chance and encouragement.

Well, whoever did the camera work for this movie, the edits, and sound design, well those guys are absolute top-notch. I was astounded to see aesthetic sense and the chiselled and well thought of camera work. The sound design was so well done.

The actors were not bad at all. Surely, you don't expect such intricacy from a low budget movie.

We have watched many a movies which are done pretty pure. This movie deserves a watch and the artists, some appreciation.

Watch it to appreciate artistry.

The firecracker daughter (Abby Eiland) of an alcoholic gunslinger and a prostitute makes an enemy of the local mogul in southern Arizona (David Thomas Jenkins). When her beloved is captured under trumped-up charges and feared dead (Jason Grasl), she has to turn to her lousy father (Rick Cramer) in order to set things a'right.

"Cassidy Red" (2017) is an artistic Indie with a reverent tone, great score, nice cinematography, decent no-name actors and authentic Southwest locations. This was Matt Knudsen's only film as writer/director; he usually works in the camera/electrical department. Despite its kickstarter origins, the movie worked for me as a moving arty ballad rooted in a romantic triangle with an Old West milieu.

Despite the nod to "Hannie Caulder" (and its unacknowledged remake, "6 Guns"), the story & style smack of originality with the setting switching back-and-forth from 1899, 1874 and 1863, although 1874 is the main setting described above.

Eiland does well as the no-nonsense protagonist. Also notable on the feminine front is Lola Kelly (Rowena), Jessy Knudsen (Quinn) and Alyssa Elle Steinacker (Young Joe).

The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in Old Tucson and the nearby Sonoran Desert with some stuff done in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles.

GRADE: B/B-

This move moves lethargically, like a turtle on Thorazine. It is best described as a thinking man's western, just, in this case, it's a thinking woman...or rather, a girl. A girl who doesn't watch westerns, and prefers Glee. It does have some nice cinematography though, and we see Arizona landscape in all its splendor. Even the sets are quite ok for a low budget western. And now the bad... the story is of revenge, revenge at the stray viewer who stumbles upon it on the Prime...The creators were aware of the western form and canons, but were not able to substantiate it, or infuse any genuine soul in this project. Oh, and did I mention that, it is lacking energy until the very end, when it is released in a somewhat farcical way. Acting is largely amateurish, making it annoying at times. The sound follows closely. I would give it 3 stars were it not for the fake upvoting, so, for the sake of fairness, 2/10.

I get sick and tired of all the arm chair film critics who think they are God's gift to the film industry but actually know nothing. I think some people give bad reviews on every film they see just for the hell of it.

Cassidy Red is a film with a simple storyline. It's not a piece of great literature but it works. It's not meant to be an all action film along the lines of The Magnificent Seven, it's a man telling a young woman down on her luck a story which turns out to be a personal experience.

The locations are great, the photography is great, the dialogue is adequate to tell the story and the action sequence at the end is good.

Its an hour and a half of escapism and after a while it gets you hooked to know the ending, until you guess the ending. Yes it has some flaws, but then which film doesnt. If you are going to pick the nits of every film you see then what is the point in ever watching one, you wont ever enjoy seeing one, you'll just enjoy getting a list of faults and feel smug. If that is all you care about you need to get out more.

Relax, sit back and watch it for some light entertainment.

I loved it and would watch it again.

I oftentimes check imdb ratings before watching the movie, for in most of the cases ratings give a pretty good estimation of the quality of the movie. For some reason, I started to watch this movie even if the rating is fairly low, and I was surprised of the quality of the movie. Story, cast, directing and overall quality of the movie was actually fairly good. It did not feel like a waste of time at all.

Having said that, there is something simplistic or hard-boild in the movie, including some of the characters, and that is likely to make some people critical about their reviews. At the same time I can't help seeing something artistic in this movie. I kind of enoyed its simplicity and slow pace.

So, my point is that the oveall quality of this movie may be better than the ratings it has got. I would have expected this to be rated somewhere in the region of 5.5 or even higher. In all, this movie is worth watching. In spite of its obvious clichés, it brings some novel nuances to the Western genre.