Gunfight at Dry River

Not only a terrible western, it's a terrible movie.

I don't know why this movie was even made.

Dialogue and ALL acting was JUST TERRIBLE.

I would recommend watching paint dry.

Not much of a movie. Way too slow to develop, plot line that really made no sense. Some decent landscape and cinematography, but even that became stale as the movie proceeded. I usually can provide a higher rating for Western movies when there are impressive landscapes, but there are just too many flaws with this picture. As a Western fan, I had a hard time being able to watch this to the end. I was really hoping for logical reactions from the characters, but every step of the way, it just didn't make sense. The lead character was likable, but didn't live up to what I would want to see in a protagonist. Save your time and skip this one.

The screenplay lacks a coherent back story and instead suggests some bizarre inherent importance of a treasure secreted somewhere. It's unclear why everyone is where they are apart from historical reasons. A lot of focus is on the dwindling water supply which becomes an impalusible rationed commodity yet quite how it would be commercialised by the invaders is unclear. The location is convincing but the ruined nature of everything makes no sense. The cowboys are hackneyed clichés as is the matriarch. Dickinson plays a doe eyed hero and though no chemistry is present between him and Isabella walker, they manage to hold their own albeit a little over the top towards the end. 101 minutes of time could be spent on something far more worthwhile even if you wheeled out a dubbed spaghetti western from the 60s or 70s.

WE certainly gave it a chance. More we watched; worse it got. Much worse.

Appears someone went to Spain somewhere, to make a western, found a bunch of rocks, a bell and a well, found some wannabe actors who probably acted in high school, and had them read mindless words. Then they patched all scenes together. An OMG Vote is much too generous. I actually felt VERY bad for the "actors".

So, when I said to my husband - you're STILL watching. He said, " I've gone this far, so have to see how this can end." Problem was - with ME - toward the film end, I thought they were all getting BETTER, or was I now brain dead!

Well, for a Western movie then this 2021 movie titled "Gunfight at Dry River" was a somewhat bland experience. Sure, I hadn't even heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it, so I wasn't sure what I could, would or should expect from writer Fe Valen and director Daniel Simpson.

And Western movies is not my go-to-movies per se, but every now and again I sit down to watch one when and if I get the chance. But mostly, if I do so, then it is the movies that revolves around the Americal Civil War, which "Gunfight at Dry River" didn't do.

Visually then "Gunfight at Dry River" was okay, it definitely felt and looked like a Western movie, given the location of the filming, the costumes, the props and the setting in general. So that certainly worked in favor of the movie.

Now, it terms of storyline, then I found "Gunfight at Dry River" to be a bit too generic and having a storyline that was rather mundane and simplistic to the point where you didn't really need to pay much attention to the screen in order to keep up with events in the movie.

The acting performances in the movie were good. Nothing extraordinary or memorable here, though, but the actors and actresses did manage to portray their characters well enough. However, the character gallery felt a little bit too much like writer Fe Valen was delving deep into the stereotypical Western character clichés.

Ultimately then "Gunfight at Dry River" was watchable, although not a particularly outstanding Western.

My rating of "Gunfight at Dry River" lands on a five out of ten stars. There are far better Western movies out there, if Westerns is your cup of tea.