The Way of the Gun

The Way of the Gun

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Movie Reviews of The Way of the Gun

Movie Review: Neo Noir/Western
Summary: 5 Stars

Christopher McQuarrie sets out to do one thing, and one thing only, and that's to instill realism in this movie. Here, just as in reality, sometimes good guys don't enter the equation, and if they do, sometimes they lose. Every person in this movie is a scumbag of the lowest quality, but in the end, it's hard to not sympathize at least a little with at least one of the intentionally-shallow heels of the story. Along with it being an exercise in all-evil protaganists, it's somewhat of an update to the western as staged by Leone and Peckinpah (considering that the final showdown's location eerily resembles that of the villa in The Wild Bunch, it'd be hard NOT to compare this to Peckinpah's work.) As I said, the characters are shallow, but in the same way that The Man With No Name was in the Dollars Trilogy. The criminals seem to only care about their money, and nothing else, and the bodyguards concern themselves with their client over themselves or innocent bystanders. The score is a stirring western-type drumming, and everything has a grimey, dirty feel to it the same as Leone pictures.

One thing to take notice before you buy this movie, is it is NOT an action movie. At least, not in the traditional sense. It's an odd contrast to my usual diet of over-the-top Hong Kong action movies, but the stark realism in the gunfights and car chases here is refreshing, to say the least. Add to that one of the coolest actors working today, Benicio Del Toro, and you have yourself a nifty little ultra-violent heist flick.

I guess I should record a fault in the movie, and, if there is one, some of the dialogue is quite out of place and sometimes the narration gets a little preachy. That's two faults. Well, I never said I could count.

In closing, I want to finally point out the reason I even started this review: After all of my searching of the disk, I can't find the theatrical trailer promised in the product description, and it's not listed on the back cover of the DVD. That may not matter to most of you, but I really loved that trailer, and it strikes me as odd that The Way of the Gun lacks it, when even five dollar supermarket DVDs have at LEAST the trailer.