Gunfighter's Moon (1997)

Strong and Moving!

Admirable film.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film opens with a sunset and a red sky and there are riders who ride in slow-motion. This is quite unusual because normally it's the way a Western ends and rides are often accelerated by fast-motion. Soon we are in a Mexican-lead barroom where the superhero (a good Lance Henriksen as a squint-eyed Eastwood lookalike who looks almost as old as Eastwood himself in the nineties) is challenged by some minor gunslingers. Later he enters the town where the husband of his former love is a replacement sheriff because the real sheriff got killed by badmen. Surprisingly he also meets his daughter who doesn't know about this fact. A strange relationship with contradictive feelings develops. What could be a good drama is mostly hurt by the contrasting cartoonish Western cliché inserts. All that is related to the Old West lacks credibility here. The characters as presented feel way to modern. They just try to be Westerners. Recommended to those who are deeply interested in Westerns. There weren't that many made in the nineties.5 / 10

I liked this one ok even though it was filled with overzealous actors who either paid no attention to their director or this manager offered no direction at all. The facial expressions and body movements were so overdone as to be hilarious. The one player who had any experience with gun handling was relegated to playing a loser who couldn't even draw his piece without breaking it open and spilling out the rounds. The biggest drawback to this film came when the seriously wounded gunfighter left his sickbed and hobbled off to exchange lead with 3 blood hungry thugs. No way, Jose. I thought we were going to be hit with a 'Shane' moment there at the end but, thankfully, it never came to pass. At least there were no hay bales laying around as there are in many westerns. Fun but dumb.

Well this is one of those Westerns that seems almost a spoof of Westerns and then surprises you with how much fun it is to watch... over and over again. Lance Henriksen is simply outstanding as the gunfighter Frank Morgan. He plays his role with a sense of restrained exaggeration. Note the way he mounts and dismounts... his conversation with the dog, his eye movements in the first shoot-out. The rest of the cast does a good job in providing Lance with numerous opportunities to sling out some good one-liners. Morgan ends up facing off with his ex-wife, a town sheriff, a puffed-up deputy, multiple bad guys and a long lost daughter. Yikes! This film had me smiling and laughing out loud all the way through. The exaggeration of characters alone is worth the price of the film.

Excellent Western. No stellar stars but lead actor (Hendricksen) and lead actress (Kay Lenz)have a stellar performance. The supporting cast wasn't bad either. Believability waned a bit when Frank was shot and became bed ridden, yet was able to physically overcome both Jordan and Spud, then proceed to take out three "professional gunfighters." Frank's unbeknown daughter spent too much time dolting over him, without really explaining why. The development of Spud was also a bit confusing. But I considered it a western similar to Silverado, without the big budget and well worth watching.