So Henry arrives in Trinity, a small frontier town, aiming to carry out his father's final wish. However, he quickly runs into the new lawman, Sheriff Gabriel Dove (Pierce Brosnan), who appears honourable and gives the naive young gunfighter a second chance. Henry soon learns that the man he is looking to kill is already dead, and the new Sheriff shows him the grave.
Enter Saint Christopher! Next up is the star of the show in my opinion, "Saint" Christopher - Samuel L. Jackson. He's a charismatic, ruthless figure and former partner of Henry’s father. He’s hunting down a fortune in missing gold that he believes Isaac buried somewhere in the vicinity. Sheriff Dove’s got his own dark secrets and history in relation to the gold, the people of the town, Henry's father - and his wife even more so, as the local doctor who has been around for a long time.
In amongst this, there's a sub-plot going on relating to Running Cloud, a Native American who is living wild but who the townsfolk believe is a murderer. Gabriel knows the truth, so he doesn't arrest her, but he has to deal with the posse who are on her trail in order to protect her, maintaining order and justice.
We now enter a stage of the film where the goodies are often in stand-offs with the baddies. The baddies believe that they are doing the right thing, while the goodies appreciate this but want the whole scenario to end peaceably and for all to know the truth once and for all - without bloodshed. But that's not what they get as all hell is let loose and all these macho men shoot and kill each other for no real reason!
Still lurking around and having a laugh is Christopher, however, always seeing the fun in a situation, manipulating both sides and winding everyone up in the process - with his sole intent on finding the gold, should it exist! There's more violence as drunken men come to the saloon where the ladies of the night provide services upstairs, and misunderstandings end up in yet more bloodshed and unpleasantness. Henry is in the middle of all this, starting off as a passive kind of chap, but becoming less and less so the more he is exposed to these drunken thugs and the violence that follows them around. Taken under the wing of Christopher and Gabriel in turn, his skin thickens very quickly as he realises that this is a dog-eat-dog world in which he has to adapt to survive.
Anyway, it plays out like a half-decent western with a half-decent plot, half-decent acting and half-decent... well, everything really! Not a film you'd watch twice, but it's a half-decent bit of entertainment for an hour and a half! Apparently, filming took place in late 2023 in Montana during the SAG-AFTRA strike. The production was granted a rare Interim Agreement, allowing stars like Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson to shoot while major studio projects were completely shut down. Some of the outside scenes suffer because of this, I think - "round the campfire" type situations feel much like made-for-TV sets. It was filmed almost entirely at the Yellowstone Film Ranch in Livingston, Montana - a purpose-built Western town set.
The film heavily leveraged its star power by pairing a former James Bond (Brosnan) with Samuel L. Jackson, though neither actor was breaking new dramatic ground. In fact, they saunter through it with ease, looking like it's a fairly easy payday-type deal! Apparently, Jackson signed on specifically because he rarely gets to do traditional Western period pieces and fancied doing so. And he's loving it! There's some nice scenery to look at, but most of the interesting and well-shot scenes are the interior ones, especially in and around the town and saloon. Worth a look on a quiet Thursday evening, feet up with popcorn - it's streaming now on a few platforms in the UK.
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