Film Reviews by MK

What can I say, its Hackman's most powerful performance save for Mississippi Burning and it shows just how rotten New York became post Vietnam. It will shock and offend in equal measure and that is it's intention. Be aware that this is a terrible BluRay transfer, its not even DVD quality its like watching a VHS tape. Not all transfers are made equal, its literally a digital scan of a cinematic print and this one is worn out and dirty with washed out colours. Buy the DVD and save your money.

I love the neo-western as a genre, I am not sure what one would be expecting if you watched a film billed as being about bank robbers in Texas put to describe them as morally repugnant is possibly a bit blinkered. It's hard to stay honest when everyone including your own government steals from you, the great depression has returned to rural america in force and the dilemma faced is an interesting one. Live in poverty? watch your relatives or even children die with no universal health care or NHS? Or do you do something incredibly risky that could see you dead or in jail in the hope of a better future? if I was faced with those choices I might take to crime as well. These men are not hero's but then again they are not evil either. They are certainly no worse than the blood thirsty locals who are looking for the slightest pretext to hunt other humans like dogs. I laughed like a drain when he stopped the truck mounted posse by producing a more scary gun than they had. Its a film about a dying way of life and tough choices.