Dawn Rider (2012)

Best movie ever!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In 1883 in Dakota Territory, a bounty hunter named Cochrane is chasing after Cincinnati John Mason ("I've never been to Cincinnati", Mason frequently tells people). We later learn three men died because of him and while they might not have had high moral standards, Cochrane says, "The law is the law." Mason was also connected with the death of a prisoner in Mexico whose family wanted justice; someone was told to release one or the other, and Mason was released. Mason may have killed people for The Pinkertons. He does admit to having been a Texas ranger.A gang wearing masks robs the mail in Wyoming and several people on both sides are shot.At a card game in Montana, Mason has three aces while the other man has three kings. I'm not clear on who was cheating but a number of guns are drawn and Mason needs to get out of town. He meets Ben McClure at a campfire.In Promise, Wyoming, Mason meets up with his father who is not happy to see him. He also meets up with Alice who is attractive, intelligent and tough, and very happy to see him. However, Ben McClure wants to marry her. This becomes a problem later. Alice seems to be the closest thing Promise has to a doctor, though maybe we just don't see the doctor in the movie.Alice's brother Rodd is about to lose the family ranch, and he is prepared to do anything. He even considers the ranch more important than his sister. Rodd needs $5000, and money like that is hard to get legally. Mason says he doesn't do that any more.The masked gang shows up again. At least I assume it is them. They wear the same masks. The only way to be sure is that some, or maybe all, have double X on their shoulder. We are told this is the first time someone has died. There are railway workers who are getting paid more now than they used to. Someone has to deliver the money, and Ben and Mason volunteer to do the job at different times. Each time there is a problem. We can't really be sure what Mason's intentions are. Meanwhile, Cochrane finally catches up with Mason. This is a standard Western, with nothing particularly special except that it's never clear just who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. There's lots of fightin' and shootin' and not too much blood. Several people die but most of them we didn't really know. Donald Sutherland gives one of the standout performances, but doesn't he always?Jill Hennessy also does a great job. This was cleaned up for TV. One word network TV doesn't tend to allow did slip through, but a number of other words got bleeped. A lot of them. Cleaned up, it's probably no worse than most Westerns, but not as clean as the family-friendly Westerns of the distant past.I just watched this because it was on. You might like it if you like Westerns.

This was a remarkably well done western with class performances by Christian Slater and Donald Sutherland as well as the rest of the cast. The authenticity of the era the movie represents is excellent. The plot is involving and complex with well thought out character development. No canned music or banal stereotypes, typical in such movies as The Quick and the Dead. I found the movie thoroughly enjoyable, with a moderately paced action and well done action scenes. The music enhanced the plot without manipulating the viewers emotions. The hero/villain roles are complex.If you like Westerns, this movie is definitely worth watching.

"Dawn Rider" is a remake of a John Wayne "B" western of the 1930s. The original version ran only about fifty-three minutes, while this remake runs an additional forty minutes - which happens to be one of the big problems. There isn't enough story here to justify a ninety-three minute running time, so frequently the movie runs at a VERY slow speed. But there are other problems with the movie. The movie is also quite dull, and while there are several action sequences, they are very unexciting. While Christian Slater has given some fine performances in the past, he's hopeless here, the last person you would consider being a hardened gunfighter despite not shaving for several days. Donald Sutherland only appears in five brief scenes, indicating he was only hired for a few days so that the movie would qualify for Canadian content rules. The production values are okay, and there are a few well-photographed sequences, but that's not enough to make the movie appealing to even western addicts like myself.

terrible western screenplay with lousy storyline and deadbeat plot, bad directing and bad acting. this western should not be made into production because it's worthless. pretentiously tried very hard to be cool but turned out to be so hollow. first, we got a close up of the guy urinated with a projectile urine line in the very beginning when it showed 'Dakota Territory, 1883", then we heard the title song kept singing in the background, then the song went on vaguely, then when the so-called 'Cincinnati Kid' open the door, the volume of the song suddenly became louder. well, did you see what wrong with such stupid arrangement? no? well, let me to tell you: it's like that there's a phonograph (record player) playing the album inside, the volume was blocked by the door, so when the door was opened, the volume suddenly came out of the opening; such arrangement of directing was just....!@#$! then the guy kept drinking out of a bottle, then three bounty hunters came and sneaked up, two of the low-level no-brains started shoot at the cabin built with lumbers, they shot the door, the glass windows...and the leader said when the shoots ended: "alive worth $500 more....now you killed him". give me a break, will you? shooting at a lumber/timber cabin from afar thru the windows and the door would kill the target? and later when the so-called Cincinnati drinker/drunk came to town, he found the robbers in front the post office then he started shooting WITH HIS TWO GUNS at very close range, his shootings were so lame, the way he held his guns was so funny, and his two guns kept shooting, at such close distance, his double guns....? well, i just can't go on to tell you how bad this movie is