Purely Joyful Movie!

It is a performances centric movie

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

OK for an evenings viewing but no where near a classic western. The deal with the wife totally confused me but otherwise not a bad story line. 7 out of 10 for me. Not many Westerns rate below an 8 with me.

Over the past decade, there has been a resurgence in the Western. That is good news because this is a much-loved genre. However, when a film like THE DUEL comes along, we simply reverse to square one all over again. This is a miserable and unsatisfying excuse for a film. The viewer will find it difficult to cheer on any of the cast, simply because they are one-dimensional characters. It is not the fault of the actors, however. Blame lies entirely at the feet of the director. This is one helmsman who is totally amateurish in his approach, and I will do my best to avoid his features in the future. There is zero intrigue, suspense, characterization, interest nor due care here. The pace drags throughout. And the editing is amateurish also. Liam Hemsworth is a competent actor but even he struggles with his role - yet he is the best thing about the film. And as for Woody Harrelson...! He should receive an award for the Greatest Miscasting of the Year. He is downright hopeless in the role of the Mount Hermon emperor. This part requires an actor of strength and charisma. But poor Woody falls at every step. Don't misunderstand me, I like Woody Harrelson. But not in roles like this. Abysmal casting.

Okay so I had to give it a 10 to address the balance here folks. It may not be the best movie ever committed to celluloid but it is worth a 7 just for the subject matter alone. Errrr endemic racism in the American South. Xenophobia towards Mexicans. Remind you of anything? Yes it does leave some looses ends ... but that only troubles those without an imagination! It does have some gruesome moments and the 'hero' can be a little annoying in his quest for the truth. But hey, as I have said, it is no High Plains Drifter! I'd give the acting a seven out of ten. It is atmospheric, the music works well. If you don't like Western's then you may not like it otherwise watch it. Its very entertaining.

Lately I have been watching lots of blacklisted screenplay films. Some of them were really good, but most of them were not. This is one of those, and I'm not convinced. The story wise, it was decent, until the secret was revealed. After that part, it's become completely uninterested. Because that twist was not par with any decent western film. In fact, it was same as what we had seen in those that sets in the modern day themes, but here it was in the second half of the 1800s.So the story was the bad thing for this, but the actors were good. I liked the Liam Hemsworth. Woody Harrelson was not bad either, but his negative kind of role pushes us away from liking him and so the Alice Braga. It opened well, but did not develop and end well. If you are looking for a good western with the story, this is not for you. You should not try this just for the performances, because I don't think it is worth that much. Definitely, I won't recommend it on that ground, but there's always people for all kinds of films, so I won't surprise if you say it is a better film than what I said.4/10