Synopsis
A widowed farmer and his son warily take in a mysterious, injured man with a satchel of cash. When a posse of men claiming to be the law come for the money, the farmer must decide who to trust. Defending a siege of his homestead, the farmer reveals a talent for gun-slinging that surprises everyone calling his true identity into question.
Awards
Venice
1 nomination
Nat. Board of Review
1 win, 1 nomination
Our Take
It’s not easy to abandon the past. Even if you want to shed your new identity, the memory of what you’ve done still linger in other people’s minds, especially if guns and violence are involved. Old Henry is one of the few Westerns that actually examines that. Of course, it holds some of the classic Wild West gunslinging, horse riding, and hunting down an outlaw, but the film actually expands on these. The film doesn’t stop on the cool moments– it considers the emotional weight of the kills, the blood on the gunslinger’s hand, and the past that inevitably haunts him, through an unexpected twist that plays with the genre’s tropes. Old Henry is much more somber than badass compared to classic Westerns, but it’s this approach that proves that there’s so much more to the genre that has yet to be explored.
Notable Critics
"A modest treat with a barnstorming turn from Tim Blake Nelson."
— Steph Green
"Blake Nelson, one of our finest actors, gives Henry's mysterious inner life physical expression."
— Bilge Ebiri
What happens
Oklahoma territory, 1906. After taking in an injured stranger with a bag of cash, widowed farmer Henry McCarty and his son Wyatt must defend their farm from a siege, inadvertently revealing McCarty’s gunslinging talents and his violent past.
What sets it apart
The plot twist.
TL;DR
This is the kind of film they don’t make no more.
