10 Under-Appreciated Westerns To Watch While You Wait For Red Dead Redemption 2
5. Broken Trail
Robert Duvall is no stranger to the world of the Western. He was the first man to play Ned Pepper in John Wayne's only Oscar winning effort in True Grit. He butted heads with Clint Eastwood in Joe Kidd. He nabbed himself a Golden Globe for Lonesome Dove, and he co-starred in the Kevin Costner comeback movie, which comes highly recommended, Open Range.
Walter Hill is also no stranger to the Western, having gone so far as to state that essentially every film he's ever made is a Western. More typical examples of that genre include The Long Riders, Wild Bill and Geronimo and even a few episodes of sorely missed HBO drama Deadwood. Mix these two elements together and in the words of Carl Weathers: Baby, you've got a stew going!
The film is tailor made for Duvall as he plays an ageing cowboy who along with his nephew (Thomas Haden Church, still riding the positive vibes from his role in Sideways) are assigned the task of escorting a large number of horses to Wyoming. During their journey they encounter a small group of Chinese girls who they rescue from a slave trader. Imbued with the decency of any human being, they opt to assist the girls which unfortunately fine them in the gun-sights of a bunch of killers.
Like most Westerns it isn't so much the plot as the acting that carries this above and beyond,when you have actors of such high caliber as Duvall and Church, guided by a deft hand such as Walter Hill, only magic can unfold.