Everyone knows the story of “Rust” by now. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot dead on set by a gun that went off in the hand of star and producer Alec Baldwin. Director and co-screenwriter Joel Souza was shot in the shoulder. Production stopped. There were lawsuits, settlements, and trials. Baldwin was acquitted, and filming resumed.
Forget the propriety of resuming and finishing “Rust,” a very slow, kind of violent ride through the old West. Hutchins’ husband negotiated an executive producer credit and all proceeds go to him and his dead wife’s son. It’s not a happy story, and some of the people involved looked worse as time went by.
Call this movie “Fake Grit.” The only redeeming feature of it is that “Rust” looks great. Hutchins must have shot at dusk and dawn only to get the buttery light and rich hues of earth tones. A successor, Bianca Cline, finished her work ably. The whole thing looks like Gordon Willis came in a paint brush using his “Godfather” palette. The panoramas are sweeping and stunning, overtaking deliberately told story whose end you can guess in the first 20 minutes.
But it’s style over substance. The screenplay by Baldwin and Souza is Costner Lite for a modern western. The story is one cliche after another: hard livin’, High Noon shoot outs, barroom brawls, the local call girls, an occasional Native American. A lot of men are shot dead, or stabbed, or pulled by their horses. We’ve seen it over and over. Spoiler alert: the actual spine of this story can be found in reruns of “Bonanza” and “Rawhide.”
Baldwin is miscast. While he looks a grizzled old outlaw cowboy, when he speaks it’s Alec Baldwin. He doesn’t attempt an accent and no should he. His famous tenor doesn’t have the gravity or range of the geography. The acting isn’t all wrong. Patrick Scott McDermott, who looks about 14 when this all started, is the real star. His character, Lucas, a lad defending his little brother after their parents have died, is the focus of the film. Frances Fisher, as his great aunt, actually offers verisimilitude. Josh Hopkins, better known from light fare like TV’s “Cougar Town,” acquits himself as the local sheriff carrying tragedy around like a Samsonite.
Everyone involved say they finished “Rust” to honor Hutchins’ memory. When the action comes to the scene where the cinematographer was actually killed, you wonder if that was such a good idea. It gives the movie and prurient and macabre feel, and takes away from fictional drama. But at least Hutchins gets her memorial. She would have gotten a lot of good jobs after this.
