This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Two For the Price Of One
Plot Overview
Nearing the turn of the twentieth century,
in rebellion against family and society, “Helen of Troy”
Rachel of Philadelphia (Rachel Brosnahan) made an ill-advised marriage
to “a very bad man” Martin Kidd (Hamish Linklater) and
moved with him to New Mexico to get away from her troublesome
roots. He wed her for her fortune and respectability. Affection
soon died and to escape her horrific circumstance, the “decoration
wife” occupied herself by teaching school. She became
“more than a teacher” to a disaffected “common
black soldier” Pvt. Elijah
Jones (Brandon Scott) and they eloped to Mexico (“I ran off
with a man of color.”) Elijah's army buddy Sergeant Alonzo Poe
(Warren Burke) is trusted by him to deliver from Kidd a ransom of
$10,000 for her safe return, but they plan to use the money to get to Cuba
instead. Her husband won't reward criminality but will pay $2,000 to bounty
hunter Max Borlund (Christoph Waltz) to bring her back.
Their situation becomes exacerbated (“muy complicada”) when
their American host in Mexico, a wanted fugitive back in the states,
Jack Hannon (Jackamoe Buzzell) doesn't want to “live like a
bindlestiff,” so he demands half the ransom in exchange
for the room & board he's been providing them. He will himself
need to share half of that with the outlaw “king” in those
parts Tiberio Vargas (Benjamin Bratt.) Vargas gives safe passage to
Max and his mufti-attired partner Poe—the latter is there to
bring in the army deserter—in promised exchange for half the
gold these supposed prospectors will find. He won't take kindly to
these “gringo scumbags” interfering with the putative
ransom exchange. Meanwhile Martin has serious issue with Elijah
for abducting his wife and will confront him at gunpoint in jail,
and he will hire Vargas's vanqueros to rape and kill his wayward wife.
Joe “not Joseph” Cribbens (Willem Dafoe) a former captive
of the bounty hunter, having just completed serving his time, is down
in Mexico for “cards, tequila and señoritas.” He
is expecting an eventual reckoning with Max who haplessly crosses
his path. Cribbens is “dangerous,” but Max is the “best
shot in the territory, rifle or pistol.” For that matter Poe
is a “damn good shot, best eye in the regiment.” Even
Mrs. Kidd having heard the West was violent practices with her
derringer. The constabulary in Chihuahua tries to keep the peace,
but there are a lot of hotheads about.
Ideology
Conflict arose between
husband and wife & between soldier and army in the vein of, (Prov. 30:33) “Surely the churning
of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth
forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth strife.”
The idea in the proverb
is that a state of peace and conciliation can erupt into to one of
conflict just as a fluid (milk) can change to solid (butter) through
continual agitation (churning.) Or hit a critical area (nose) and
it bleeds. The movie illustrates the former by cockroaches, “a
g.d. nuisance,” swarming the dishes until Joe can't take it
no more. He draws his six-shooter and blasts the plates to smithereens.
It illustrates the latter by Mrs. Kidd getting her cheek grazed
in a final shootout, it requiring stitches, but she demurs saying,
“I'll wear my scar as a badge of honor.”
We have Pvt. Jones “all those years taking nothing but sh!t” until he can't stand it any more and deserts. And when Mr. Kidd tells the missus that tomorrow she's going to be taken by the low-life Mexicans he's hired and “used by them in the lowest possible way,” there being no place to hide, the little lady draws her derringer. Her husband says she won't shoot, but she says she's changed. The widow moves back to Philly to become a suffragette.
Production Values
“” (2022) was directed by Walter Hill. It was written by Walter Hill and Matt Harris. It stars Christoph Waltz, Willem Dafoe and Rachel Brosnahan. Waltz carries the movie easily. Dafoe and Burke in turn are forces in their own right.
MPAA
rated it R for violence, some sexual
content/graphic nudity and language. The script shows promise but
could have used some work. For instance there's potentially wonderful
alliteration in the line, “fugitive from the law, army deserter,
extortionist.” The r's just roll off the tongue,
but a single act of extortion would rate him as a simple
extortioner not an -ist. And if a “cavalry man”
can be called by a cow's hide: “boots & saddle, slap leather,
and ride,” it wouldn't hurt to use human skin as a
descriptor, adding another r with nigger from
its Latin root niger
meaning black. In fact when the Bible
lists some “prophets and teachers” (Acts 13:1), included is “Simeon
that was called Niger” which sobriquet would have necessarily
been respectful. Or perhaps the expected, historical word
nigger was ditched when the early drafts were bowdlerized
to accommodate modern, Yankee political correctness.
The flashbacks were shot in B&W. The blurry thru-window shots helped soften scene transitions. The editing was acrobatic but it worked. It tried to evoke the ole spaghetti western in pace, music, and roughness. Expansive vistas helped define the setting. It was filmed on location in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a good western with a knotty plot. A cameo by a couple nuns pegged the setting as Catholic Mexico where religion was pretty much hit and miss, here mostly a miss. Its unifying theme was a man doing his job as a bounty hunter, sometimes bringing them in dead for a dollar. Within the confines of his occupation, however, he showed mercy when he could.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
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