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Living by the Gun
A man returns from the bad blood and hard luck roads of redemption to his family homestead following his brother's death setting off his niece's quest for revenge.
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If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
from the first lines spoken i knew this would be one of the worst films ever made. the only person who deserves any praise is the one who was able to raise the money to make it. however that was done is a miracle. if however someone chose to invest their own money in this endeavor i have a bridge to sell them.when i see films this bad they remind me of something my father once said to me when i was kid. we were at the local cinema and the film was really bad. less than half way into it most of the audience had left. i asked my dad why we weren't leaving and he said that in order to appreciate the better films you need to experience the bad ones too. but my father could have never foreseen a film this bad being released.
This movie was, without a doubt, the absolute worst I have ever seen. I'm amazed that it made it onto the big screen... on the other hand, maybe it didn't make it onto the big screen; maybe it went straight to DVD. It is really very bad. What a shocker... I now find out that I have to write 10 lines of comment on this deplorable failed effort at entertainment. The acting was embarrassingly bad. The cast looks, AND acts, like maybe they are friends and relatives of whoever was behind this. I've seen better acting in high school plays, seriously. Those friends and relatives then wrote the glowing reviews wherein 8 of them rated the *cough cough* 'movie' a 10 (on a 10 scale) and 7 more rated it a 9... UNBELIEVABLE!
I've been in love with westerns all of my life and for me there is simply nothing better than watching a good one but absolutely nothing worst than sitting through a bad one and I'm sorry but this is about as bad as they come.I really did try but I could only last about 15 minutes because every time an 'actor' opened their mouth I cringed. The acting is so atrocious that at first I thought it was a spoof, then on clicking on each of the cast names I noticed that this was the only movie most of them have been in so maybe they were just friends helping out. As for all the positive reviews, if you genuinely liked the film, fine, but comparing it to The Wild Bunch, True Grit or Shane is really just an insult to some of the America's greatest film makers.
. The title, Livin' by the Gun, identifies the film as a morality play, so even before the violent opening sequence, we expect that the hero will also die by the gun. The story is similar to the arguable exemplar of the genre, George Stevens' Shane: a noble man turned gun fighter and trapped by his past. In Stevens' version the gun fighter is sympathetic because he exemplifies the 40s-50s hero—a man of integrity, alone, misunderstood, yet of high moral character. Miller's protagonist, Uncle, however, is considerably more complex. He spends a good deal of his life as a gun for hire, apparently frighteningly indifferent to the suffering of others. In fact, in countless scenes he shows little or no emotion as he plies his ruthless trade. At one point, Uncle shoots two young bounty hunters who are trying to apprehend him. The callow youths do not die immediately or easily, so after they endure a night of unspeakable suffering, Uncle dispatches them quickly, perhaps to put them out of their misery, or possibly because their constant moaning is an annoyance. At this point, we are not sure whether Uncle is a cold-blooded sociopath with poor impulse control, or a man trapped by circumstances. Perhaps he still possesses a divine spark that if nurtured, could lead him to nobility. As it turns out, Uncle is indeed transformed into his better self, at least temporarily, through the love of a hooker with a heart of gold, and the kindness of a God-fearing, elderly, Christian couple, but alas, it is too late. The die has been cast. Uncle's niece is mistakenly convinced that he is the source of her family's dire straits, so early in the film she sets out on a parallel path to avenge her family. A young girl alone in woods, armed, and searching for the object of her revenge will inevitably be put in the position of defending herself and others. Soon her body count, including unintended victims, rivals her uncle's. Yet she, too, is temporarily redeemed by love, and like her uncle reverts to relying on her earlier limited problem solving set (kill it) when life's vicissitudes bring bitter disappointments and injustices that are just too much to bear.Miller's film brings to mind Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Released in 1969 it set the standard for cinema violence. While Miller doesn't rival Peckinpah in number killed, his percentage of the cast killed is very high. I counted thirty-two killed and I'm sure I missed some. So why all the violence? Everyone knows that if you live by sword, you die by the sword. We knew that before the film started. Yet the atomistic myth of self-reliance that exemplifies the genre too often overlooks the compelling evidence that man is a social animal in a social setting, and the decisions about how we live our lives has a ripple effect. If violence is one's only or preferred solution set, it's impossible to know the limit of those who will be affected. Miller's story reminds us of the collateral damage that such an approach to life will of necessity inflict. The lesson is as old as the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane and as modern as reoccurring present-day tragedy of the toddler killed by a drive-by shooter aiming for a rival gang member. So, if you're squeamish regarding film violence, be prepared to spend a good portion of the film with your eyes covered.Miller's love of the Gold Country shines through the mud and the mayhem much as Woody Allen's love of Manhattan does in his films. Like some Coen Brothers films, the location plays an integral and major though silent role; it is ever present, impossibly beautiful, and in marked contrast to the death and ugliness of soul perpetrated by the human members of the cast. Another delightful surprise was a haunting and skillful original score and engaging vocals.So if you're looking for a slick Hollywood production complete with movie stars or a 50's type western, this will not be your cup of tea. If what you want is a truly beautiful film with an excellent score then Livin' by the Gun is for you.