Shadowheart (2009)

Let's be realistic.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

This movie was, despite the claims of many others, an excellent western. I am not sure how people define how a western should be, but I look back to the horse opera pulp fiction of the former century.This movie had a hero town between his want for revenge and moral convictions bestowed upon him with his father's dying words and a psychotic villain whose greed motivates him to acts of unspeakable horror.This film is surely vilified by the double standard held by fans of film today. It is not high-budget enough to be considered as relevant as any film that gets a theatrical release and it is not low-budget enough to get passed off as camp. If this movie were made thirty years ago and starred Clint Eastwood, it would be a classic.There has not been a villain in a western so good as this films since Gene Hackman in Unforgiven.This movie is Pulp, it is not drama, neither is it one of the pointless morality lessons written by Cormac McCarthy.There is a place in the middle between the highly stylized Spaghetti Westerns and the dramatic The Unforgiven. This movie belongs on that line.The bottom line: If you are a fan of Westerns, particularly in novel format, you will like this film. If you are a fan of films and do not like it when a movie sticks to the formula of its genre, then you should probably look elsewhere.This movie is not going to change your life; it does however entertain.

As I watched this terrible film, I was reminded of a bad High School drama project. The characters are one dimensional, the story line is something that any HS kid could come up with, very formulaic.The score leaves nothing to the imagination. You have the soaring violins and happy sounds when we meet the dad and are expected to learn what a good man he is, as an example.Bad guy goes from having rotten teeth in the beginning of the movie, and 15 years later has a set of pearly whites. I guess they invented cosmetic dentistry in the interim.And even small things, like the guns are from the early 1800s, but are supposed to be late 1800s models.Looking at the film, you realize there was some budget here, as the cinematography is fine, but the rest of the film is just dreck.

This movie was a terrible waste of time and $1 at Redbox. I have not hated any movie this much in years. I should have recognized this as direct to video, but I didn't because it was on Redbox and I was looking for a movie to watch with family who liked westerns. It makes for a good drinking game. If you drink every time something ridiculous is happening, you will be falling down drunk before its over. Please waste your money or just throw it away. Don't rent this whatever you do. It just gets worse as it goes along. I can't really relate how lame this film is. Movies are just not this bad. I am shocked that this was ever released. Its like a bad car wreck. You can't look away, except in this case you can, and you should. Like another reviewer said. NO REDEEMING QUALITIES.

Shadowheart is not your typical western and I have mixed feelings about it. If I want a true western I think I'll turn to Eastwood. Allow me to split my thoughts into pros and cons...There are several things I don't like about Shadowheart. First of all, the movie doesn't exactly reflect the title. I think in the first minute the narration says something along the lines of "I refer to him as Shadowheart" and that's all we hear of that. You can forget about it and might as well make up your own title. I would call it Legend, which is where this takes place, a town in New Mexico set in 1865. Secondly, the beginning of the movie is boring and the child acting is borderline laughable. Obviously not all children are stars, but the acting just isn't good. Thirdly, the very end did not seem necessary. I won't say much so as not to spoil everything, but if it ended showing the yellow ribbon and nothing afterward I would have been happier. That would have been a great way to finish. Watch and you'll know exactly what I mean.Now on to what I do like about Shadowheart. First of all, poor acting aside, this is a solid story. I enjoyed it despite dealing with the aforementioned cons. James Conners loses his father to murder as a child, he leaves town and returns an adult seeking vengeance. Would I recommend it as a western to see? No. Would I recommend it as a movie to see? Maybe. Secondly, Will Tunney is a fantastic character. He's the slimy guy everyone's afraid to mess with and he ultimately owns the town. Nobody likes him, likely even his own crew. Heck, I wanted him dead the entire movie he was that ruthless.