Reviews

this is one of the most boring, poorly written and self-indulgently directed shows ever. if you don't fall asleep you must be on crystal meth, or really used to watching bbc period drama productions.

there are several superb actors. among other factors, what lets the side down is the plodding, pretentious pace of development and the seriously anachronistic lashings of political correctness. the latter is lethal to any sense of verisimilitude.

anarchic humour --the office, monty python, shameless-- is what the brits do better than Americans, not to mention also 'youf' shows like skins and the inbetweeners. but because the bbc is above all a preachy, paternalistic and politicized monolith, it cannot do TELEVISION.

the British are incapable of six feet under, sopranos, true blood etc etc --just as the Americans are ludicrously incapable of shameless or the office. and here they prove they are incapable of mad men --every British reviewer leeching onto this comparison.

needless to say, brit newspaper reviewers have rallied around the flag, though few enthusiastically.

the reality is that this show would never have been produced, must less broadcast anywhere in the world where the government does not extort an annual television fee, and where viewer response has no impact whatsoever upon the commissioning editors.

Westerns are out of fashion but this one is done with feeling and authenticity organically inspired by the casting of actors who themselves have genuine associations with the west, instead of just sticking a cowboy hat on george clooney for eg.

Where another critic has mentioned awkwardness, I think instead that this is a masterful portrayal of the kind of characters who inhabited the real west. They were not articulate or hip.

The pace and the photography are both somewhat indulgent, making this film evocative rather than brisk, though there is plenty of honest and brutal action.

I see two or three movies every day, and this is one of the rare ones which, though no masterpiece, I respect and would even see again.

i read the reviews here, but still i watched this movie. thank god i did not pay anything. it has no redeeming features. i pity the people who worked on it, but that's no reason to pretend this film has any good points.

it is mere schmaltz. if you have no critical faculties whatsoever and are a sucker for bourgoeis sentimentality [an american, and female] you will probably have a good weep and vote for this as your all time favourite.

however, if you have the possibility of watching any other movie than this one, grab it.

this film is a work of genius. marketing genius. i went along because friends insisted it was great, two having seen the film three times. i found not a single scene showing any real imagination. i noticed the guy next to me nodding off. yet he swore he loved the film. what is going on here has something more to do with psychology and marketing than filmmaking or aesthetics. i like sex and violence, but there was no sex and the violence was so ridiculously schmaltzy i could only yawn. i was a student at oxford at the end of tolkien's life, read all his books and have an appreciation of what he was trying to do in his books. yet how odd that i cannot find a single redeeming feature of this film. i love crap films with no intellectual content that entertain. it was with heartfelt relief that i saw the credits begin to come up. thank god i could get out of the theatre.