Guns of Redemption
Directed by Brian Skiba
Written by Kieth Merrill
Starring Casper Van Dien, Jeff Fahey, Kaitlyn Kemp, & Sean Astin
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hours, 37 minutes
Available on streaming March 7

by Kevin Murphy, Staff Writer

I’m always seeking new entries into the western genre that sate my appetite like the ones that my father introduced me to ages ago. The pickings are slim in an era so far removed from its heydays either in earnest or from a revisionist perspective. As the genre’s decline in popularity means that most of the works produced today are lower-budget, independent pieces that take some pretty big swings and can sometimes–sometimes–pull off what they aspire to.

In the wake of the Civil War, Luke (Casper Van Dien) has sought a new life free of his military past, and has come as a stranger to live with the trusting Parson Dyer (Sean Astin). The past is never easy to escape, however, and after General Bork (Jeff Fahey) wreaks havoc upon the small settlement, leaving corpses. When Charlotte (Kaitlyn Kemp) and Anna (Siena Bjornerud) escape his traveling brothel, Luke takes up his guns once again, hoping to save the sisters before the bullet inside of him takes his life.

It mostly captures the feel of a revisionist western in many of the ways that matter, with a straightforward and less cynical narrative. There’s a fair amount of religion loaded up in here, the frontier Protestant beliefs that offer the kind of salvation that would appeal to someone haunted by the horrors of the then-recent war. It’s not heavy-handed or preachy, acting more as a thematic device, and it works for the arc of the story. Less functional is how, like other tales set in this era, there’s a lot of hand-waving about Confederate morals, favoring instead a conflict between post-War soldiers that doesn’t address any of the reasons for the lingering animosity. All of this is more or less baked into the genre and a larger discussion for another time, but Ryan’s column about The Outlaw Josey Wales gives a little more insight into the topic.

Casper Van Dien does well as the haunted stranger, all the better because his performance generally isn’t overstated. That is the inverse of Jeff Fahey nailing his role as salesman, scoundrel, and cold threat, using a twisted logic to justify his actions. The villains in such stories often get the opportunity to have bigger personalities, which makes for fun contrast. Sean Astin’s brief screen time shows an earnestness that I’ve always associated with his performances over the years. Kaitlin Kemp and Siena Bjornerud are solid as well, the latter in particular getting a chance to shine.

I want to give some deserved praise to the cinematography here. The stretches of Kentucky landscape offer gorgeous imagery that evokes a frontier less desolate than the prairies than one expects from a western. I appreciate any entry into the genre that breaks from that convention and takes advantage of lush green spaces that can be just as isolated from society as the lone outpost of humanity in the desert. Also solid is the score, another aspect for which director/editor Brian Skiba is responsible. It’s standard fare for a western, nothing too flashy, that nonetheless surpassed my expectations and helped the film reach a comfortable B-level at its highest points.

Unfortunately, there’s many elements that don’t just stumble but fall flat on their faces. The story is stronger than the writing here in a lot of places, and dialogue feels clunky, which makes it more difficult for the actors to turn their lines into more solid performances. This shows most strongly in some of the less-experienced supporting cast, but not even the leads are free of some dudes. There’s some real technical flaws as well: although I won’t complain too much about the digital effects, there are moments where the smoke machines or other devices being used are extremely conspicuous, or where the focus is off, and some continuity errors that are hard to miss. I will note that I only have the screener to go on, so these might've been addressed in the months since, but I also can’t gloss over the clumsiness of it when these mistakes are so egregious.

There’s so much here that’s solid, if not necessarily excellent, and I was mostly satisfied with it on that level. Director Brian Skiba has plenty of passion and ambition when it comes to this genre, but without the ability to successfully execute on that, Guns of Redemption suffers from too many issues that drag it down from the serviceable B-western it could be.

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