Jane Got a Gun

In the 1940's and 50's, the western genre was very prolific, and a plethora of these films were cranked out to an amazing degree. However, this genre is continually reinventing itself with more recent films such as the Coen Brothers' "True Grit", "Cowboys and Aliens", "The Rover", "3:10 to Yuma", "The Quick and the Dead", "Unforgiven" and even the recent, "The Revenant". So it should not come to any surprise that yet another western is in the offing in the form of "Jane Got a Gun".

The year is 1871, six years after the end of the Civil War. This story centers on Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman), who has built a new life with her husband Bill "Ham" Hammond (Noah Emmerich) after being injured and tormented by the ultra-violent Bishop Boys outlaw gang. She finds herself in the gang's cross-hairs once again when Ham stumbles home riddled with bullets in the back after dueling with the Boys and their relentless mastermind Colin McCann (Ewan McGregor). With the vengeful crew hot on Ham's trail, Jane has nowhere to turn to, but her former fiancé Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton) for help in defending her family against certain destruction. With her diligence and patience, Frost reluctantly agrees to help her and her husband. Haunted by old memories, Jane's past meets the present in a heart-stopping battle for survival.

Others to round out the cast are Rodrigo Santoro as Fitchum, Boyd Holbrook as Vic, Alex Manette as Buck, Todd Stashwick as O'Dowd, James Burnett as Cunny Charlie and Sam Quinn as Slow Jeremiah.

This was helmed by a filmmaker that knows this type of film in the form of director, Gavin O'Connor ("Comfortably Numb" '95, "Tumbleweeds" '99, "Miracle" '04, "Pride and Glory" '08, "Warrior" '11, "Only Human" (TV movie) '14) plus others. By his very resume, O'Connor was the ultimate selection. He has somewhat a similar approach to directing westerns as the directing legend, Sam Peckinpah with the grit, realism and intensity that was a trademark in Peckinpah films. It was written by Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis and Joel Edgerton based on a story by Duffield. With the exception of Edgerton, these writers are fairly new at feature films, however this was actually a solid attempt at an interesting premise. Other than a couple of slow places in storyline, this finally did increase momentum and then soared. Certainly, I'd love to see what Duffield and Tambakis could write next, this being the script it was. The one that actually shined here was that of Ewan McGregor as the baddie. First of all, it was difficult to tell this was McGregor, and secondly, it was a much meatier role than we are used to seeing him in which made it much more appealing to watch. 

If you're a western buff, you'll revel, but even if this genre isn't something you'd typically view, the premise, and the way the script was laid out made it an interesting story as it was conveyed to its audience. This has smart directing, acting and writing which is something to revel in considering these aspects are ones we don't see as much as we should see in films today.

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                 Rated: R                                 98mins.