Directed by: Potsy Ponciroli
Starring: Tim Blake Nelson, Scott Haze, Stephen Dorff, Trace Adkins
It is good from time to time to go back to the good ole western times when everything was different than today. Or was it? Maybe. They were fighting for money then while smelling gunpowder fumes. Today the object of the fight is the same, just the methods and the weapons are different.
“Old Henry” takes us back to 1906 somewhere in the prairies of Oklahoma where in one quiet corner of the land lives Old Henry and his son. They live a simple farmer’s life until one day, Henry finds a wounded rider close to his house. Along with the faded rider, he finds a bag filled with money (dirty, of course, how they can be dirty in the wild wild west in that time). Henry will take care of the injured rider, but will also pick up and hide the bag with cash. The trouble is that a gang of outlaws are also interested in money- in fact, according to them, that money is from their last bank robbery.
In the final face-off, Henry will show off some gunmen skills. That will remind the wounded bounty hunter about his childhood in Mexico and the day, when he witnessed the killing of the Legendary Billy the Kid. Then the movie takes a big twist, when it comes out that the old farmer is actually Billy the Kid himself, much older after years in hiding but still alive.
So this movie is not pretending to show some exceptional qualities, but it’s just perfect for a change of pace. If you want to relax a little bit from everything that is going on in today’s hot movies, then the best way to do that is to go back through history more than a century ago.
Filming of this movie is actually pretty good. A lot of action is outdoors and is authentic enough. Acting is just good, but the stunts are all very lousy. That’s why the movie loses some of it’s dynamics and the important gunfight scenes are not exciting. Without tension in those scenes, the Western is not the one we used to know.
Film for lazy Sunday afternoon and some forgotten history reminder.
Worth watching? Why not?
