I first heard of The Grey Fox a number of years ago, when I decided to look into some of the films made by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope film studio - it put out a number of real gems, like The Escape Artist, Kagemusha and Koyaanisqatsi, as well as a bunch that missed the mark a tad, but for some reason I never got round to watching this one till now.
It's the (relatively) true story of the aged stagecoach robber Bill Miner who, released back into a changing world after decades inside in 1901, takes up trainrobbing and finds himself up in Canada, with a new name and a new romance.
This, of course, isn't anything all that new, really just a lesser attempt on the same ideas of Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid and other films with a sprinkling of Unforgiven thrown in. One of its main weaknesses is that it tells too much and doesn't show enough - we don't get to see hardly any of Miner's life, and there are no real action scenes to speak of. On the other hand, there is a great deal of beautiful photography, a heavenly soundtrack of Irish music by The Chieftains, and Richard Farnsworth gently twinkling in the lead role.
It's a small film, that doesn't really add up to all that much in the end, but it's a nice journey all the same, and the (fictionalized?) ending made me smile.
It's the (relatively) true story of the aged stagecoach robber Bill Miner who, released back into a changing world after decades inside in 1901, takes up trainrobbing and finds himself up in Canada, with a new name and a new romance.
This, of course, isn't anything all that new, really just a lesser attempt on the same ideas of Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid and other films with a sprinkling of Unforgiven thrown in. One of its main weaknesses is that it tells too much and doesn't show enough - we don't get to see hardly any of Miner's life, and there are no real action scenes to speak of. On the other hand, there is a great deal of beautiful photography, a heavenly soundtrack of Irish music by The Chieftains, and Richard Farnsworth gently twinkling in the lead role.
It's a small film, that doesn't really add up to all that much in the end, but it's a nice journey all the same, and the (fictionalized?) ending made me smile.