The Old Way is notable for being the first Western for Nicolas Cage (he’s also in another one coming out this year, Butcher’s Crossing, which might end up being the better of the two). To some extent Red Rock West was a modern Western, but this has a more traditional film setting in the past. It’s was directed by Brett Donowho, whose last film was one of those Bruce Willis VOD film, Acts of Violence. The Old Way is having a limited theatrical run with a simultaneous VOD release.
Cage plays Colton Briggs, an old gunslinger who now has a nice little ranch with a wife and daughter—but his past comes back to haunt him. Stop me if you’ve seen this film before… He and his daughter end up in pursuit of the people who came to hunt him down, driven by their own desire for revenge. The actress who plays the daughter, Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), is quite good in what’s essentially a trashy VOD film. You can definitely buy into the father-daughter relationship between Armstrong and Cage. There’s also a nice turn from Clint Howard, and it’s always good to see him pop up in something.
For someone who is often seen as very much a “modern” actor with his own very unique brand of performance, Cage fits in well and is more subdued than usual. Even in the trashiest fodder he’s been involved with in the last decade, Cage is remarkable committed, and here he is clearly relishing the opportunity to make a Western for the first time. He’s definitely the only reason anyone would see this film (although in some ways it seems like a step backwards after his critical acclaim in Pig and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.)
It’s an old-school, nuts-and-bolts Western that still allows some space for thematic interest. It plays very well with Walter Hill’s recent film, Dead for a Dollar. The plot basically cribs from Unforgiven, Shane, A History of Violence and any other number of films, but there’s a reason this story keeps getting made: it’s a very universal tale that still plays well. The script itself is unfussy writing with solid story beats. Nothing hugely surprising narratively which is interesting coming from the screenwriter of the trippy The Wave.
The cinematography by Sion Michel is not bad, which is surprising for these types of films. It was shot up by near Yellowstone park so it’s hard to not get some pretty shots. Michel started out as a camera operator, including working on Collateral so he has some real technical craft even working within a small budget.
One of the few production stories about the film is that it used the same armorer as the ill-fated Rust, where there was a fatal accident, and Cage (who is very much a professional) thought the person handling the firearms was unsafe and at one point walked off-set. As we now know, he was right to do exactly that.
The Old Way is perfectly serviceable. So if you like Westerns, it won’t be anything that will blow you away, but it’s a breezy and enjoyable 95 minutes—even if you’ll know exactly where it’s going. The novelty of Cage in a stetson hat with a six gun carries the otherwise at times pedestrian but competent filmmaking.
The Old Way is released in UK cinemas and digital on Friday 13th January 2023.
