So, of course, when one of McCurdy’s morons goes too far, John Henry finally straps ’em on once more to put things right in town. However, once the pieces are all in their places, the deliberate set-up begins to pay some dividends to those who relish the form after all, Westerns have long been the repository of much of America’s folklore and there are primal satisfactions to be taken from seeing the rituals played out time and again.

The younger Sutherland also for too long resembles a pressure cooker that’s about to blow sweaty, his lips pursed and his voice tightened by emotional restraint, the actor hasn’t worked out enough variations on expressing the great effort John Henry must expend to prevent himself from blowing his top and pumping all the bad guys full of lead. Read more Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in ‘ Freeheld‘: TIFF ReviewĮven within the film’s short 90 minutes, too much time is devoted to the reverend’s recriminations for his son’s neglectful attitude and ungodly life, as well as to the younger man’s boring clearing of some land that he views as a way to make amends.

These and other goons work for local boss McCurdy (Brian Cox), who aims to take over all the locals’ ranches one way or the other.

How often have we heard this one before - about the young man who learned to kill in the Civil War, found new habits hard to kick afterwards, did some things he regrets and now returns home determined to hang up his gun belt once and for all? The younger Sutherland plays just such a fellow, John Henry Clayton, who surprises his preacher father William (Kiefer’s dad, Donald Sutherland) by showing up at family ranch after many years but is instantly upbraided for not returning earlier to see his mother again before she died.Īll the backstory and scene-setting in Brad Mirman’s script gets things off to a slow start, as John Henry must also reconnect with his former love (Demi Moore), who finally gave up waiting and married somebody else, and is sized up by quick-on-the-trigger pretty boy Frank (Aaron Poole) and slick hired gun Dave Turner (Michael Wincott at his smoothly menacing, deep-voiced best).

Forsaken by Kristen Day