The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy (2011)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This movie should come with a warning label – "Don't even look for a plot." I enjoy westerns and always look forward to seeing newer ones. So I had great hopes. There were some positive points. Great scenery, costuming and they shot black powder revolvers so there was the correct amount of smoke. So much for the positive. There was NO plot, just a rambling from one scene to the next which may or may not have been loosely connected. I kept waiting for it to all get tied together, but it never did. That mule had to be the dumbest mule in the world falling off the cliff like that. I've worked with horses all my life and generally mules are much more sure-footed that a horse. I had to marvel at how fast the three amigos could run and leap through the woods, each carrying several huge bags containing jugs full of booze. And all the time, outrunning the pursuing horses. Amazing. Watch if you like movies with dark filtered scenes, dialog that's hard to hear and "stories" with no beginning no middle and no end.

I lately watched this modern Western with a friend and as a big fan of the genre, I must admit that this flick is one of the worst Westerns I have ever watched and in general one of the worst movies I have seen in quite a while. The only reasons why this movie got two points are some gorgeous landscapes and the good choice of decorations and also costumes for the actors.The rest is just awful apart of some beautiful actresses that though have only quite short roles. The movie lacks of a coherent story line and randomly follows a couple of poorly written side stories that are not even told until the end. The acting is quite bad and filled with stereotypes concerning the Indians or a strange Russian hunter where one might ask what he is doing in Texas after all. The characters have all no development or depth at all. The dialogues are the most awful thing and make this movie very hard to sit through. The characters simply talk a lot without saying anything intelligent.The movie lacks of suspense and humour and also of action scenes. The film is composed of landscape scenes, endless dialogues and switches from one story line to the other. Sometimes, these switches happen so fast one quickly gets confused with the high number of secondary characters and the weird chronology of the movie while at other moments one stays half an hour with the same characters without anything going on at all. The few action passages are very poor and can be resumed to random shooting scenes where the actors feel very bored and wooden and die without big emotions at all.There is nothing hellish or legendary about this flick and the note that this movie is based on true events is just a cheap way to attract some more viewers as most of this flick simply is pure fiction built up around a few nebulous facts. The short side story around the possible Abraham Lincoln murderer is the most laughable thing about this flick and it doesn't have anything to do at all with the rest of the movie. This part was only included to make American patriots watch this movie and they will be disappointed quite soon. One doesn't even get to know why the guy killed the president of the United States of America, we only get to see a weird barman played by some sort of cheap Johnny Depp copy getting drunk and feeling sick who then thinks he dies and reveals his killing secret only to wake up in perfect health the next morning and leave the city without any urge and problem after somebody has stolen his possessions. This bit seems to be quite random to you? Yes, it is and so is the entire rest of this big letdown. Just avoid this piece of trash at all costs and don't get fooled by the promising title or partially wrong advertisements.

"My name is not St. Helens, my name John Booth the assassin of Abraham Lincoln." Just outside Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas there is a cliff formation that is known as Hell's Gate. During the 1870's this place was home to notorious outlaws and crimes. When a young boy overhears a conversation involving the local bartender he thinks he found a way to get rich. He teams with two strangers in order to make it rich and famous. Being a huge history buff this movie seemed very interesting to me. It says based on a true story, but I'm not sure how accurate this actually is. I have been saying that the western genre has really fallen off in the last ten years. This one is still a definite B western, but it is much much better then most of the recent ones. The acting is iffy at best but the story keeps you watching and I was actually surprised at how much I was enjoying it. Overall, not a bad western at all. Very watchable and pretty entertaining. I give it a B.

Movie Review of "The Legend of Hells Gate" by GW "Bill" Johnson I just saw Tanner Bearden's Legend of Hells Gate: An American Conspiracy. He wrote it; directed it; and helped star in it along with Eric Balfour who also covers the ground he stands on. Star watchers should get a bright red permanent marker and put a big check next to these young men's names. Bearden a 28 year old young man is gifted along with his whole family as I found out. In Texas we would say; "He'll do to swim the river with". This movie has the look and ambiance of Lonesome Dove without vulgar insinuations. Bill Johnson Flat Rock Crossing on Big Keechi Creek, Texas