A Tale of Two Guns (2022)

If I had to guess I would say that director Justin Lee is aiming for a meta-western, and A Tale of Two Guns (a title that must have sounded great on paper but which makes little contextual sense) certainly is very self-aware – even a little too much for its own good; here is a movie where the score in a scene set in a saloon (though according to the sign outside it is a “club” rather than a saloon) is Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer.” There is also a lot of talk about “the end of an era” and “a dying breed” and “figur[ing] out what men like us are gonna do in this life” now that “The organization known as the Cowboys has come to an end.” As a matter of fact, there is a lot of talking in this movie, period, and quite a bit of it is rather incomprehensible. For instance, we have such non sequiturs as “I do not like your face, sir. Therefore, I will feel no such way about killing you on the merit that you are an annoyance in my presence.” Now, don’t get me wrong; I love westerns almost as much as I love films about people talking, and there is no law that says a western can’t or shouldn’t be wordy (I’m reminded of Ed Harris’s Appaloosa, which had a lot of fun with the English language), but perhaps there is a reason that some of the greatest westerns seem to be as laconic as their heroes. Two Guns is at its best when it’s about, in its own words, “the thrill of the hunt”; a cat and mouse game in which the pursuer (Ed Morrone) says of his prey (Casper Van Dien) that “I've just been hunting this man for a few weeks now, and every time I think I might understand him, he does something to surprise me.” Both Morrone and Van Dien turn in solid performances, and there’s also strong supporting work from the likes of Tom Berenger, Jeff Fahey, Judd Nelson, and Danny Trejo. Morrone is new to me, and the others are far from what you’d call an A-list cast; on the other hand, this isn’t the first rodeo for any of them, and they all bring a world-weary journeyman quality to the proceedings that is much welcome and much appreciated.