This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
1906 Feminism at Sixes and Sevens
Plot Overview
Old Henry McCarty (Tim Blake Nelson)
is “just a farmer” working a homestead with his teen son
Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) in the Oklahoma territory in 1906. Trouble comes
knocking in the form of Woods County [?] “Sheriff” Sam
Ketchum (Stephen Dorff) who notices that Henry ain't “got the
talk of a mild old sodbuster” and that “he didn't
hold that pistol like any farmer I've ever seen.” While Ketchum
thinks “there's more to old McCarty than meets the eye,”
Henry himself narrates, “It can be hard to tell who or
what a man is he's got a mind to convince you otherwise.”
In a Western there may be gunslingers
galore made according to a writer's imagination. Then there be the
legendary ones grounded in historical fact, though their stories get
a mite embellished. If their names are big enough, we recognize them
from prior literature and media. Here we know that McCarty is his
real name as his wife is buried under it and his brother-in-law Al
Hobbs (Trace Adkins) had scoped him out before they'd wed. If it doesn't
ring a bell, then either he didn't make it as far as the dime novels,
or we haven't seen enough Westerns. A Peter Lyon piece informs us:
Sheriff Pat Garrett … shot and killed the Kid in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It was July 14, 1881. Henry McCarty, alias William Bonney, alias The Kid, was not yet twenty-two. ¶And now the fun began. [There follows a list of magazine articles, dime novels, books, and plays about him.] In one sense, it is, of course, perfectly true that Billy the Kid did not die. He is the most imperishable of our folk heroes. (79–80)
Ideology
Early
in the movie Henry and his kid are having a vigorous discussion of
Wyatt's objections to a hard farmer's life with little to show for
it. Henry now being a Bible thumper quotes: “By wisdom is a
house built and through understanding is it established. Through
knowledge are its rooms filled with rare and beautiful treasures.”
That's from the New International Version (NIV) whose Old Testament wasn't
translated until 1978—a stand-alone Proverbs came earlier.
The King James Version (KJV)
prevalent across the land in 1906 would read, (Prov. 24:3-4) “Through wisdom is
an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And
by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant
riches.” The main difference is “chambers filled with
all precious and pleasant riches” instead of “rooms filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.” The American Standard Version
(ASV) published 1901
would read the same as the KJV in this depiction.
The KJV “all precious and pleasant
riches” would include the tasty hog Henry was butchering and
about to smoke, the root cellar filled with vegetables to a make soup
for their guest, all the furnishings and the silverware. Alternately,
the NIV “rare
and beautiful treasures” would include the satchel of cash Henry
finds on the ground, with a loaded pistol, the “handsome”
stranger Curry (Scott Haze) they take into their home to nurse to
health, the pretty tattoos 
on the arms of Ketchum's men, and the dove
he's whittling. Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
The NIV was copyrighted: 1973, 1978 & 1984, a time when our English language underwent deliberate modification due to problems (some) women had relating to men. Said Rush Limbaugh, “It's almost as if America went through its own feminist Cultural Revolution in the 1970s and early 1980s. Everything went mad for about ten years, and only now [1992] are we seeing young people who now view those years as somewhat bizarre” (191). Since this movie provides no mechanism for moving the feminist Bible back in time, the obvious plot point would be that literacy was in short supply in the McCarty household. The housewife Marie imperfectly quoted the treasure verse and after she passed, the menfolk kept repeating it that way. Eventually Wyatt moves on and becomes a preacher who is heard by someone on the NIV translation committee. Since theirs is a “dynamic translation,” i.e. idea for idea, as opposed to formal equivalence, i.e. word for word, the saying sticks.
Since the Hobbs home is the next one
over from the McCartys, they would have both settled under the Oklahoma
Homestead Act when Marie was in her twenties. The piano that
graces the McCarty house unplayed, like the proverbial elephant in
the room, says she was likely a saloon girl before her family moved
there. She had trouble with men who took advantage of her love for
baubles, and that is why her brother Al was strongly protective of
her. Both she and Henry had a checkered past, so the Hobbs brothers
couldn't hold too much against Henry. Marie Hobbs-McCarty used a
hyphenated last name as later popularized by the feminists.
The feminists are much concerned with labor management, men's and women's. Traditionally, men hunt and women dress the game. Here Henry dresses it, as did Ketchum when he was younger. Wyatt is not allowed to hunt (or handle firearms.) Until recently he was ignorant of his father's infamous past. Now he must set off into the world, one very confused lad. The movie does not spell it all out, but it leaves plenty of room for speculation.
Production Values
“” (2021) was written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli. It stars Tim Blake Nelson, Scott Haze, Gavin Lewis and Stephen Dorff. Nelson as the lead does an outstanding job, with good support from all the rest. Wild Indians would be less scary.
It's not rated but contains no swearing, sex, or nudity. There is a sideways shot of a slaughtered hog. There's wonderful cinematography from John Matysiak. Since it's a low budget film a lot of it is night shots when one can't see much anyway. It's got a crafty plot.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
Christian parents with shady pasts leave
a teenage boy confused about his place in the world which should be
well defined in the West. The brutal action in this episode can't
help but add to his trauma. He'll fade off into the sunset with hope
and a prayer. This movie is pretty much what you want to make of it.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action episodes. Suitability for children: Not rated. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
When noted, scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Scripture quotation marked NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION or NIV is taken from the
HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible
Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. Print.
Limbaugh, Rush. The Way Things Ought To Be. New York: Pocket Books, 1992. Print.
Lyon, Peter. “The Wild, Wild West.” Copyright © 1960, 1969 by Peter Lyon. Originally appeared in American Heritage, August, 1960. Reprinted by permission in Stephen B. Oates. Portrait of America Vol. II. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org