User Reviews

When you have Robert Duvall, James Franco and Josh Hartnett it would be a challenge to make a bad movie, while this is not a horrendous film it has a huge amount of flaws. Casting your wife in the film might earn you brownie points but she takes wooden to a whole new level. I can only presume the director wanted her to spend the film acting like a trauma victim. This was a real disjointed film with things thrown in which added nothing to the plot, what was going on with Josh Harnett and his wife? someone tries to murder a Texas Ranger and nothing is done or even discussed, what did the Will scene add to the film? Some excellent cinematography of the mountains and plains can not rescue the film, it is poorly paced with little tension and an awful script some of the support actors appear to be reading from cue cards. The central 'reveal' is mundane and a bit stupid, you are chased from a house by a gun toting redneck so you hide in the barn? then when the horse kick kills him Robert Duvall thinks it is a good idea to bury the body? it makes no sense. Shame with the talent available we ended with entirely forgettable film

Robert Duvall wrote, directed and starred in "Wild Horses", a modern day Western that has little bearing between the title and actual story taking place. It's sort of a family drama interspersed with a criminal investigation focused on Duvall's character, ranch owner Scott Briggs. Until I read some of the other reviews here, I didn't know the actress Luciana Pedraza was Duvall's real life wife. She's the Texas Ranger attempting to link Briggs with the disappearance and presumed murder of a Mexican teenager who had a relationship with Briggs's son Ben (James Franco) some fifteen years earlier. With the cold case reopened, Briggs is caught up short and scrambles to keep himself in the clear about what happened so many years ago.

I'm not as upset about the film as a lot of commenters on this board seem to be. Duvall may be settling into a comfortable pattern of characters in his latest movie roles, but that's no reason to fault his ability. He delivers his lines with nuance and determination, and I for one don't mind the pacing of his pictures like "A Night in Old Mexico" and the one under consideration here.

What kept me off balance however was Franco's portrayal of son Ben. Alternately conflicted and reconciled with his father over his own sexual identity, his motivation in telling the elder Briggs he never wanted to see him again after the truth came out about the Davis death didn't ring true for me. After all, Briggs didn't actually kill Davis, it was a horrible accident for which he was present and might have borne second or third degree culpability. If anything, his 'crime' was remaining silent for the last decade and a half, but coming clean seemed like what should have been a redemptive moment. I guess what I'm saying is that that whole scenario needed a better working over to come across more effectively.

As it is, when Scott Briggs pulled over on the side of the road, I felt he had already telegraphed the outcome of the movie. The off screen gun shot brought his personal ordeal and anguish to an end, and if you think about it, not many actors would write themselves into a screenplay in which they come out as a failed human being. Give Duvall credit at least for taking that kind of risk near the end of a long and productive career.

This film was a big disappointment Seemed to be all over the place and the acting, outside of the major talent was terrible. Duvall's wife while very attractive (her best scenes are showing off her body) can not act... her acting style was reminiscent of the wooden acting of Delores Taylor (Jane) in the old Billy Jack movies. Her character's Texas Ranger response to being shot at was not human and after her attempted murder scene, nothing happens. She catches the shooter but apparently the Texas Rangers don't make an attempt to figure out who the shooter is or his connection to the local street gang. Also the gay sub-plot was very trite along with the surprise discovery of the daughter by way of the hacienda maid. Some moments were nice, the range scenes were nicely shot, but not worth the on-demand price.

ruined everything! At the very beginning of the film, it's a night scene, very dark. Then we heard the trademark murmuring of Robert Duvall's old-fart shadow vaguely bow-legged walked around with a gun in his hand, then he intruded into a stable or warehouse, gun blazing and shouted. We saw two young men chased out by him. At that time, we didn't know what happened. Then, suddenly, it's 15 years later. 15 years passed, and the old fart Duvall riding a horse, galloping in the desert, looked even younger?! Give me a break, will you?! Then the awkward and clueless screenplay ushered two Texas Rangers into this awkward scenario, started a cold case of a missing young Chicano, then... then there was a horse riding scene for Duvall's grandkids with another vague parent showed up....then we suddenly got a clueless picnic or some kind BBQ scene, with several Mexicans playing guitars and singing Mexican songs, Hi..ya...ya...ya......then there was a shooting scene across the stream that divided US of A and Mexico. Then, inserted a scene of the female Texas Ranger knocking on couple of doors with awkward dialog.....then the estranged son came back home, then the plot of gay gay gay finally started.

Like the other viewer's comment, who cares and why we'd give a rat arse to care about the 2% gay people in America? An awkward movie like this that we can use two lines of a song to sum up: "Let it be~~~Let it be~~~" A total waste of time to write a review for such lousy movie.

This film starts with some of the worst acting i've ever seen. I gave it ten minutes and things picked up a little with Josh Hartnett and Robert Duvall on screen together but the minute Duvall is left with a different actor it all go's to pot again, he becomes as awkward and one dimensional as the rest of the cast (Hartnett and Franco aside).

Only watched because i like Duvall, i won't make that mistake again... Time he retired!!!

Watch for the first scene between Hartnett and his son... I'm still holding my head in my hands in disbelief... Such an inappropriate conversation, it just felt really awkward!