Old Henry (2021)

Really good westerns are really thin on the ground these days. This has become an instant favorite of mine, both for the intelligent (though admittedly fanciful) plot, as well as for the gritty acting by the ensemble cast. This is a slow burner, building up to its explosive ending. I can’t help but wonder if the scriptwriting was influenced by Clint Eastward’s Unforgiven. A widower trying to raise a family scratching out a living on a meager farm. A man with a past that is gradually revealed. And despite it being a slow burner, it retained my interest the way that Unforgiven did. Granted, the gunfight sequences seem excessive, but that is almost a hallmark of modern westerns. There are plot twists at the end, one that is imaginative and almost breathtaking as it is revealed, and the other reminiscent of Cold War espionage films, where the heroes ultimately don’t know who to trust. To avoid spoilers, I will say no more. So I will definitely watch this movie again. It is similar to Unforgiven in that respect also.

**_How can you find sanctuary when violence shows up on your doorstep?_** A father and son on a remote homestead in the eastern Oklahoma Territory in 1906 take in a wounded man, which attracts three men claiming to be law officers. Havoc ensues. Tim Blake Nelson plays the withered farmer while Stephen Dorff is on hand as the leader of the trio. "Old Henry" (2021) includes Trace Adkins in a small role, which wasn’t a good sign since a couple of his recent Westerns weren’t up to par. I’m talking about “Stagecoach: The Texas Jack Story” and “The Virginian” (“Traded” and “Hickok” were much better, but nothing exceptional). Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised by “Old Henry.” Like those other modern Westerns, it was made on a shoestring budget but quality writing and acting win the day. Mix the basic setting of “Echoes of War” with the Eastern locations of “The Long Riders” and the lonely brooding of “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” along with the production tone of a couple of those low-budget Trace Adkins’ Westerns and you’d have a good idea of this one. I don’t want to say more because there are quality surprises in store. The movie runs 1 hour, 38 minutes, and was shot in Watertown, Tennessee, which is about 45 miles east of Nashville. GRADE: A-/B+