Image courtesy of IMDB
The Way of the Gun is a violent and graphic movie that I’d only seen the intro for on YouTube (see below) and just couldn’t wait to get into.
Unusual in it’s portrayal of violence because it isn’t your typical relentless, ridiculous, and without risk kind of violence. This is very real and quite squirmishly portrayed. The torture sequence and talks of finger nail pulling (which always does it for me) and eyeball slashing all comes across quite sinister and real.
The plot is not a simple one to grasp through all of this meaningful violence for a number of reasons. First up I am not quite sure if the movie is actually meant to be about our two main characters, Mr Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Mr Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro) who absolutely own their respective roles and light up the screen with amazing acting and minimal dialogue.
A Western at heart, hence the tribute to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, this film has at least 8 main characters and what makes that even more difficult to decipher is that they all their own depraved motive, nothing is quite what is seems and is even less likely to be described in full for you either.
A real delight for me as I love a thinkers movie, with an amazing narrative occuring late in the move when Robin (Juliette Lewis looking quite a lot like Rachael Griffiths) is asked to play a game of Hearts (cards) with the Parker and Longbaugh, as Longbaugh explains the games rules while all the time filling the air thick with double entendres intended to solicit the truth from her, which climaxes with exactly that; Robin reduced to tears and letting out pieces of information you would never have guessed.
Our anti-heroes have chosen a path that they know will end in blood and bullets but continue with a certainty and lack of care for self preservation that is both endearing and scary, but testament to some very convincing acting.
This film needs to be watched several times and shared with other film watchers who like a a bit of honest violence and also enjoy deliberating the plot.
Went down in my journal immediately as a great for the realistic gun fights, the superb acting and casting, great narratives, excellent twisted and complex plot and overall realism that I havent seen in a Hollywood film for a long time. Having said all of that I have but one regret from this year 200 classic – I only wished I had of discovered it earlier!
Excellent one liners:
Joe Saron (James Cann): ‘Karma’s justice without the satisfaction. I don’t believe in justice.’
Parker: ‘Don’t you think it’s funny that if I grab a woman’s ass and she punches me, she’s fighting for her rights, but if a faggot grabs my ass and I punch his lights out, I’m a homophobe?’
Paker: ‘I think a plan is just a list of things that don’t happen.‘
For a taste of the insidiously foul language watch the opening scene below.