Editor’s Note: This article may contain spoilers for the movie “Rust.”
4 out of 5 stars
“Rust” is not a classic Hollywood western, with massive shootouts and dashing heroes. The film portrays life on the Great Plains as it was in the 1880s, painful and desperate, while emphasizing the importance of love and duty.
“Rust” barely made it to the big screen due to a fatal accident on set. When the movie was originally filming in 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun loaded with a live round, halting production.
The fate of the film was uncertain in the following court cases, and director Joel Souza decided to finish the film after Baldwin was found not guilty. We should all be grateful he did.
The film tells the story of Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott), a 13-year-old orphan responsible for providing for himself and his 6-year-old brother Jacob (Easton Malcolm). After Lucas is sentenced to death for killing a rancher, Harland Rust (Baldwin), Lucas’s estranged grandfather and wanted outlaw, breaks him out of the county jail.
The film follows the duo as they make their way across the Great Plains, hoping to cross the border into Mexico.
The film is visually stunning. “Rust” was shot in New Mexico and Montana. Carefully crafted shots of the landscape were paired with minimal sound design, letting the scenery shine.
The interplay between light and darkness was masterful. Souza played with light and shadows throughout the film, using shadows and silhouettes to emphasize the darkness in characters.
Harland Rust first appears in the film as a dark silhouette, but as he opens himself up to loving Lucas, the shadows around him lessen. A scene between Harland and Lucas towards the end of the film, lit only by firelight, was the most beautifully framed scene in the entire movie.
The dialogue was sparse but intentional. The characters spoke straightforwardly and didn’t mince words. There were a few quotable wild west lines thrown in, my favorite of which was: “If your brains was knives, you couldn’t cut hot butter.” The acting in the film was so natural that I was completely drawn into the story, which is high praise from a theatre major.
I audibly gasped each time a new costume was revealed; the designs were that amazing.
The film fell short in a couple of areas. The sound design team did not understand that a six-shooter gun only had six shots. In one scene (and to their credit, it was only one scene), I heard about 18 shots passed between two men, which is about six too many.
The movie also had one scene that should have been cut entirely. At one point, Preacher ends up at the house of a woman whom Harland had talked to, and since they were both lonely, they kicked the kid out of the house and had a good time. The scene didn’t add enough to the plot to warrant keeping it.
The film ended with a quote from late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins: “What can we do to make this better?”
There’s no rush to see it in theaters, as it has been released on streaming services Amazon, Fandango at home and Apple TV. But do kick back and relax after finals with “Rust.”
Photo courtesy of Roger Ebert.