This multi-layered morality film is not as easy to watch as something with a romantic veneer, like Bonnie and Clyde for example, but it runs much, much deeper into the core of our nature than many others do. The story involves two brothers who are fighting to save the family farm for reasons that are never too obvious given the shrewd script, the carefully placed focus we have on the home, the community, the other players.
Richard Gere as Frank Roberts gives a masterful display as the guilt ridden son letting down his father, his family, himself, and yet appearing, by the end of the film to be the only one with a soul, with warmth, with feelings, with an identity that hasn't to be etched out by someone else.
The imagery is often raw as in the "beast of burden" being forced to pull more than it can, whilst an evil showman cracks his whip and the audience calls for the beast to pull. It seems only we and Gere can see what is going on. And a bank robbery where morality goes all over the place except where it should lie courtesy of such clever acting and script. And a final scene allowing us to make up our own minds about what we learned during this wonderful feast of images.
This is drama to be admired for what it depicts rather than any thrills or spills or CGI. It is definitely adult and definitely compelling once the stage is set but I wonder if it was ever really commercial.
Nine out of Ten.
Richard Gere as Frank Roberts gives a masterful display as the guilt ridden son letting down his father, his family, himself, and yet appearing, by the end of the film to be the only one with a soul, with warmth, with feelings, with an identity that hasn't to be etched out by someone else.
The imagery is often raw as in the "beast of burden" being forced to pull more than it can, whilst an evil showman cracks his whip and the audience calls for the beast to pull. It seems only we and Gere can see what is going on. And a bank robbery where morality goes all over the place except where it should lie courtesy of such clever acting and script. And a final scene allowing us to make up our own minds about what we learned during this wonderful feast of images.
This is drama to be admired for what it depicts rather than any thrills or spills or CGI. It is definitely adult and definitely compelling once the stage is set but I wonder if it was ever really commercial.
Nine out of Ten.