The genre of Westerns has been around for more than a century; I have seen estimates than more than half of all American movies ever made have been westerns.  I have doubts about that, but the genre has been popular and influential for a very long time.  That said, the genre has also been in its twilight phase since before the turn of the century, and it is rare to see a western that is fresh, or original, or important.  The western milieu sometimes seems like a gold or silver mine that has been played out, with only a few prospectors still digging around to find something of value.  This film, while not a big nugget of entertainment, is at least worthwhile to experience and to think about.

Anthony Mandler’s film follows Mo Washington, a former Buffalo Soldier, traveling west to lay claim to a plot of land.  Mo’s stagecoach is ambushed, with the result that outlaw Tommy Walsh (Jamie Bell) is captured and Mo is designated to watch over him until the law can return to get him in a day or two.  Meanwhile, Tommy’s men, dispersed at the ambush, are searching for him and Tommy is trying to persuade Mo to let him go.  With time running out and everyone becoming more desperate before lawmen can arrive, tension, suspicion and greed are all running high.

This premise is reminiscent in a couple of ways of that of the classic 3:10 to Yuma (either version).  It’s character-driven drama, macro-magnified to explore a very particular situation in excruciating detail, allowing human foibles to accentuate elements like fear, disgust, greed, pride, morality and mortality.  The set-up is fairly traditional in genre terms, and yet it also seems to be contemporary in its view of this tiny little slice of society as thoroughly divided and distrustful, apathetic about one’s rights and ready to resort to violence at the slightest provocation.  It’s quite effective in exploring most every little crevice and corner of this legal and moral dilemma.

But above it all is the defining element of Mo Washington.  Mo has a secret which, while it remains secretive, doesn’t change anything about the situation.  But the effort to keep it a secret alters the way Mo behaves and hangs over the drama, ready at any moment to change it into something else.  That is because we intuit the secret quite early in the story; it bothered me that no one in the drama could see what was readily apparent to me, which I felt was a definite weakness for the film to overcome.  In hind sight, perhaps I am giving this subterfuge too little credit, but it is keeping me from rating the film as highly as it probably deserves.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  10 November 2024.