Old Henry

The romanticised stories of the wild west have always made for great cinema. Wyatt Earp's famous ride to take down the outlaw Cowboy gang. The aces over eights in Wild Bill Hickok's hand when Jack McCall shot him down in Tom Nuttall's Deadwood tavern. Butch and Sundance's final moments in Bolivia. Who actually killed Johnny Ringo and did Jesse James really know what would happen when he turned his back on the coward Robert Ford. But the west wasn't like that. It was a brutal, stark, unforgiving place where no one could be trusted and life was cheap. Old Henry tells it like it really was, but then changes direction in a manner suggesting a story that wants to have it's cake and eat it too.

A manner that will make you punch the air with unrestrained glee.

Father and son Henry (Tim Blake Nelson) and Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) lead a miserable existence on a dirt farm in the middle of the Oklahoma territory. Wyatt can't believe his father is content with this life and wants out as soon as he becomes a man and Henry has made peace with the fact that he'll probably die alone but his discovery of an injured man on his land stirs up their quiet corner of the frontier. The wounded man is Curry (Scott Haze) and his claims to be a lawman make Henry sceptical and his suspicions rise even further when three more men led by the nasty sumbitch Ketchum (Stephen Dorff), also claiming to be the law, appear on his doorstep. Sensing danger is close and fearing for his son, Henry starts making plans and well.....to say any more would just be fuck-acting.

One of the best feelings you can have as a film fan is discovering a film you've heard nothing about and then falling for it hard. For the first hour of Old Henry you'll be bombarded with distinctly familiar feelings, especially if you're a western fan. Vile lawmen with no regard for the rules they claim to police. Homesteaders content to do their bit. Youngsters champing at the bit to handle firearms and experience life. Porch confrontations that could turn violent at any second. A glimpse out of a front door so blatant that John Ford's lawyers will start twitching. All the genre conventions are laid on thick, especially that old favourite, the man with a mysterious past. Watching Henry and how he handles things you get the sense he's done it all before, that confrontation is old news to him, he's haunted by the things he's seen and it makes sense he wants the quiet life for him and Wyatt. But like the pots on his range everything eventually comes to a boil and when it does...

Oh man. Like I said before, glee.

Tim Blake Nelson is one of the most unassuming actor's you'll ever seen onscreen. Best known for dopey but lovable Delmar in O Brother Where Art Thou, he not an actor you'd ever imagine cheering for but here he'll grip you instantly. The droopy eye and yard brush moustache. That opening narration laid over director Potsy Ponciroli's camera gliding above the misty landscape he calls home, glimpsing his wife's grave on the hill overlooking his land, our sympathies building when you realise his stern demeanour is all about protecting what he loves and then the absolutely believable manner with which he takes care of business. Stephen Dorff's Ketchum gives him a fine villain to play off, a real nasty piece of work, one of those bastards you just can't wait to see take a slug. It's his meaner side that kicks off this film's climax and it's one of the most enjoyable final acts of any film released this year. That's no hyperbole either, this is the pulse racing stuff Bob Odenkirk's film Nobody should have aspired to be. 

Old Henry is streaming now on the US google play store where you can view it if you use a VPN. No doubt it will hit the Irish store soon. If you enjoy the odd western you'll like this. But if you love the genre this subversion of the stories you know well will really hit the spot.