By Lisa Nystrom
Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Alec Baldwin, Patrick Scott McDermott, Travis Fimmel
Intro:
...visually captivating...
With themes of sacrifice and survival at its core, Rust deals with violence and its consequences in a tale tragically echoed by reality. At 13-years-old, Lucas (Patrick Scott McDermott) is orphaned and alone, raising his younger brother on the near lawless plains of 1880s Kansas. When a poorly aimed shot takes the life of a neighbouring rancher, Lucas is sentenced to hang for his accidental crime. Rescued from his fate by his estranged grandfather, Harlan Rust (Alec Baldwin), the pair set out for Mexico and the impossible dream of freedom.
A stray bullet, a life turned upside down, a disaster that alters people’s futures…they’re all part of a recipe for a traditional Western. And yet, the true heartbreak of the story is the now infamous incident that occurred on the film’s set in 2021, where a live round was discharged from a prop gun, injuring director Joel Souza and tragically killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Hutchins’ death has been widely publicised; any talk about her final film is sure to be tainted by the media frenzy that surrounded the accident and the ensuing court proceedings after the fact. Filming continued at the behest of the cinematographer’s husband, who stated that Hutchins would have wanted her last work to be seen. Upon viewing, it is clear from the very first frames that this film is intended as a tribute, and will now stand as a gifted cinematographer’s legacy.
The film itself is visually captivating, making excellent use of the vast landscapes and rugged countryside. Wide angle lenses and creative contrasts in lighting paint a genuinely lovely picture, envisioned by Hutchins and aided by DP Bianca Cline, who stepped up as cinematographer to complete Hutchins’ dream, using her notes as a guide.
In terms of plot, the story follows a well-trodden path. The climax is inevitable, even predictable, but director/writer Joel Souza embraces the tropes and conventions of the classic western, playing with dialogue in ways that feel reminiscent of pulp cowboy novels from the 1950s. Visually, this is striking work, but it doesn’t pretend to be anything deeper than a man in a black coat fighting a man in a white coat.
Newcomer Patrick Scott McDermott holds his own as the resilient young Lucas, and his performance carries much of the beginning of the film as we see him struggle against a harsh land filled with harsher men, fighting to keep his brother safe. He’s easy to root for, more so than Baldwin as the grizzled grandfather, a man possessed of a reputation and a name often spoken with a hushed sort of awe. He doesn’t own the screen in the way a classic western anti-hero might; Baldwin lacks that Gary Cooper presence, but his less than solid performance might be attributed to the general sense of grief and upset that no doubt hung over the set at the time of filming. As the antagonist, Travis Fimmel– the man in the sleek black coat known as The Preacher – is suitably intense and unsettling, leaving no room for ambiguity regarding the role he’s there to fill.
Despite this promise of bounty hunters warring with the sheriff’s posse as they pursue our desperate heroes, the narrative momentum doesn’t build a lot of tension, and even with the price on their heads, the journey of Lucas and Harlan towards Mexico is a slow one. There’s a laconic sense to the storytelling that could use some tightening, but if nothing else, the drawn-out journey serves as a canvas for some truly beautiful shots, allowing space for a bright young creative whose talent was cut short to have her moment, much like the landscape itself, beautiful and enduring.
