Forsaken (Cassar, 2015)
In which Kiefer Sutherland’s character John Henry Clayton, racked with guilt over his brother’s death when he was a youngster, took off to war and didn’t immediately return at the war’s end, drifting instead as a gunfighter to his preacher father’s eternal shame. He’s missed his mother’s funeral, and his childhood sweetheart Demi Moore from their Brat Pack days has been married eight years since to a local bellend. Still, John Henry’s back at last to put his gunslingin’ ways behind him. But: Oh noes! Brian Cox has rounded up Guy of Gisborne from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Costner, 1991) and a posse of assorted one-dimensional gurning bad guys in order to strongarm the townsfolk into handing over their lands and properties Who will be able to take up some guns to stop them??
Disappointingly by-the-numbers piece, this. Donald Sutherland does more-or-less what he’s done for the last fifteen years (fierce-eyed patriarch, white hair sprouting in every direction) whilst his son Kiefer does more-or-less what he’s done for fifteen years too (Jack Bauer). Now, I like Jack Bauer and 24, and that’s a large part of why I was looking forward to Forsaken, directed as it is by Jon Cassar who also helmed Kiefer Sutherland’s signature TV show. But, the climactic gunfight aside - which was admittedly rather good, though no less than one would expect from the director of 24 - everything else was torn straight from “Western Clichés 101”. Far from having Kiefer in “Action Jack” mode, we mostly had him in “Contemplative Jack” mode, which essentially involves Kiefer doing that stuttering look-ashamedly-at-the-floor thing he does. A lot. And Jon Cassar’s inexperience with the big screen showed; the whole thing felt like a made-for-TV movie. Surprisingly little relative chemistry between the Sutherlands too, I thought. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Donald Sutherland so flat. In fact, were it not for Brian Cox and Michael Wincott, I might have given up on it altogether.
I’m enjoying the western revival of the mid-2010s but movies like Forsaken are going to see the genre back in it’s grave quicker than you can cry, “It’s an ambush!”. What a shame.