Director: Gavin O’Connor
Cast: Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, Rodrigo Santoro, Noah Emmerich, Boyd Holbrook, Alex Manette, Todd Stashwick, James Burnett, Sam Quinn
Rating: 15
Running Time: 98 mins
Release Date: 22nd April, 2016
There was once a time in cinematic history when you couldn’t go wrong with a western. Wide shots over the sun scorched and dusty landscape, a big Hollywood star on his horse galloping into view. The small frontier towns, duals and outlaws were all commonplace in western films.
More recently, we have seen small resurgence of the western film that has crept onto our screens slowly but subtly – just think of Quentin Tarantino’s recent films THE HATEFUL EIGHT and DJANGO UNCHAINED.
With this small uprising of the western genre, I have to ask the question, has director Gavin O’Connor re-ignited our passion for a good old western film?
The short answer is no and I had big hopes for this film. With a strong female lead in Natalie Portman, I hoped O’Connor would take the western and its conventions and give it a modern twist. This doesn’t happen and I can’t help but think the film was, dare I say it… a little bit dull.
JANE GOT A GUN sees Natalie Portman take centre stage as Jane, a young mother in New Mexico, just after the Civil War. The film opens with Jane caring for her husband, the former outlaw, Bill ‘Ham’ Hammond (Noah Emmerich) who returns home with several bullets in his back, curtsy of “The Bishop Boys”. At this point we are unaware who the Bishop Boys are, only that this threat forces Jane to take her child to safety to a nearby friend.
Jane then enlists the help of Dan Frost (Joel Egerton, he also co-wrote the screenplay), who is later revealed as her ex-finance during a flashback sequence who Jane thought had died during the Civil War. They both make provisions to help her protect her home, husband and young child from the impending threat of the Bishop Boys. O’Connor attempts to liven up his film with flashbacks of Jane’s past. The flashbacks serve their purpose in helping us understand the history between Jane, Dan, Ham and the Bishop Boys and provides some depth to the film, but not quite enough to make you fully care about these characters and the actions they’ve had to take.
With a strong female lead, possible love triangle and the impending threat of a local outlaw, JANE GOT A GUN has all the ingredients to make a more engaging film. Yet O’Connor hasn’t taken full advantage of this, we get a dash of excitement, but nothing that makes you sit on the edge of your seat. Take for example, Ewan McGregor’s character Collin McCann (leader of the Bishop Boys), Jane fears him so much she asks her previously presumed dead ex-finance to help her out and sends her child away for protection. Yet, the final scene, doesn’t do McCann justice and doesn’t make us feel like he is an overpowering and villainous character, but simply just another cowboy in the Wild West and not someone to be feared.
The problem with JANE GOT A GUN is that it’s not a terrible film, there are some impressive shots of the scenery and the visual effects of the final scene with the light pouring through the gun shot house, makes it a visually pleasing film, it’s just not an exciting one.
Verdict
