RUST (2024)
(director/writer: Joel Souza; screenwriters: story by Souza & Alex Baldwin; cinematographer: Halyna Hutchins, Bianca Cline; editor: David Andalman; music: Lilie Bytheway-Hoy, James Jackson; cast: Alec Baldwin (Harland Rust), Patrick Scott McDermott (Lucas Hollister), Easton Malcolm (Jacob), Josh Hopkins (Sheriff Wood Helm), Frances Fisher (Aunt Eveyn Basset), Travis Fimmel (Fenton ‘Preacher’ Lang), Devon Werkheiser (Boone Lafontaine), Rhys Coiro (Clete Lafontaine), Xander Berkeley (Blackburn), Jake Busey (Drum Parker), Abraham Benrubi (Big Bill Cochrane), Travis Hammer (Dick Miller), Nick Farnell (Laurence Stilwell), Sam Carson (Willard Leroy), Richard Gunn (Sheriff Tom Long), Easton Malcolm (Jacob Hollister); Runtime: 139; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Melina Spadone, Ryan Winterstern, Nathan Klingher; April Productions/streaming; 2024)
“Plagued by the much publicized tragic death of the 42-year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hotchins.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The slow paced, low-budget Western is plagued by the much publicized tragic death of the 42-year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hotchins. She was fatally shot and the director injured in 2021 when a prop gun fired by Baldwin was loaded with live ammo and went off during the filming in Santa Fe. The 24-year-old Hannah Guttierez Reed, the inexperienced armorer in charge of handling the gun, was in March 2024 convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison for 18 months. After a long court case Alex Baldwin, in July of 2024, was not convicted for recklessly firing a loaded weapon. But it never became clear why there was live ammo on the set.
It’s directed and written by Joel Souza (“Crown Vic”/”Break Night”), based on a story by Souza and its star Alex Baldwin.
It’s set in the untamed Wyoming Territory of 1882.
Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott), a 13 year-old orphan farmboy (both parents are dead), who looks after a younger brother (Easton Malcolm), is sentenced to hang for the accidental shooting at the town’s general store of the bullying father whose bullying son injured his arm when he challenged Lucas to a fight.
Lucas’s outlaw grandfather, Harlan Rust (Alex Baldwin), who never knew the kid, busts him out of jail and they bond as they head for the New Mexico Territory, pursued by the forlorn sheriff (Wood Helm) and the ruthless bounty hunters organized by the evil preacher Fenton ‘Preacher’ Lang (Travis Fimmel).
The film is not well-executed, and Baldwin is miscast as a grizzled western outlaw. But the indie art film has enough decent action scenes to make it watchable, and its photography was fantastic–a testament to both Hutchins and her replacement Bianca Cline.
REVIEWED ON 5/16/2025 GRADE: B-
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