I thoroughly enjoyed the movie apart from a couple of key points that really detracted from the overall quality.
The story picks up mid way through a chase in the snowy Nevada mountains. We do not know who is being chased nor who is doing the chasing nor do we know why. Motives are slowly revealed throughout the nearly two hour running time. Until then it is up to the viewer to decide who to root for (typically human nature will mean we always go for the underdog which is inevitably the person being hunted).
The cinematography is excellent and the landscapes outstanding. The plot is deliberately simple as this is not a movie with endless twists and turns although the chase leads us from mountains to lowlands through railway camps, pilgrims to desert.
One of the messages here is an age on old one namely the futility of revenge with the two protagonists eventually forming a bond without necessarily becoming friends.
Where I feel the movie falls down is a couple of key areas such as Gideon leaving his only means of transport namely his horse at a campsite in the mountains with a fire going for his chasers to find. Sure leave the campsite and watch your pursuers from afar but you would never leave your horse..that just does not make sense.
Also at the end when Carver is shot but then miraculously gets up and walks away....what the f..k??? Maybe bullets back in the 1860's only tickled. What was the director thinking?
Lastly throwing in a random Indian philosopher at the waterhole, well just didn't quite fit in and seemed a bit contrived or maybe a space filler.
Apart from that Brosnan and Neeson did a bang up job.
The story picks up mid way through a chase in the snowy Nevada mountains. We do not know who is being chased nor who is doing the chasing nor do we know why. Motives are slowly revealed throughout the nearly two hour running time. Until then it is up to the viewer to decide who to root for (typically human nature will mean we always go for the underdog which is inevitably the person being hunted).
The cinematography is excellent and the landscapes outstanding. The plot is deliberately simple as this is not a movie with endless twists and turns although the chase leads us from mountains to lowlands through railway camps, pilgrims to desert.
One of the messages here is an age on old one namely the futility of revenge with the two protagonists eventually forming a bond without necessarily becoming friends.
Where I feel the movie falls down is a couple of key areas such as Gideon leaving his only means of transport namely his horse at a campsite in the mountains with a fire going for his chasers to find. Sure leave the campsite and watch your pursuers from afar but you would never leave your horse..that just does not make sense.
Also at the end when Carver is shot but then miraculously gets up and walks away....what the f..k??? Maybe bullets back in the 1860's only tickled. What was the director thinking?
Lastly throwing in a random Indian philosopher at the waterhole, well just didn't quite fit in and seemed a bit contrived or maybe a space filler.
Apart from that Brosnan and Neeson did a bang up job.