Truly Dreadful Film

A Brilliant Conflict

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Forsaken is directed by Jon Cassar and written by Brad Mirman. It stars Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, Brian Cox, Michael Wincott, Aaron Poole and Demi Moore. Music is by Jonathan Goldsmith and cinematography by Rene Ohashi.There's a group of words bandied around for this one such as generic, cliché and formulaic, and most assuredly these can not be argued about. For this is very much an old style traditional Western, the plot featuring a retired gunslinger being pushed into action again - while he tries to reconcile with his estranged father - is a hard core staple of 1950s Westerns. But what is wrong with having a traditional Western in this day and age as long as it's produced with skill and grace? The answer for Western lovers is nothing at all.This is a beautifully mounted picture, fronted by father and son Sutherland's - which adds heartfelt emotion to their scenes together - and boosted by gorgeous cinematography (making it a Blu-ray must), it's a genre piece of worth. Crucially it knows what it wants to be, it has no pretence to be anything other than a traditional Oater for lovers of such. The villains are sneery and scenery chewers - apart from Wincott who is a gentleman dandy type - and the good guy is wonderfully broody and reflective. Pacing is fine, the story has good drama and the finale excites as we hope it should.In summary, nothing new here of course (except maybe Cox's out of place language!), so expectation of such would be foolhardy, but a smashing Western it be. 7/10

Another duster made in the genre that had it's heyday in the 60's. I liked many things about this picture but by far the best was the cast. Kiefer and his father Donald Sutherland were asked to convey real emotion in this picture and they both managed to pull it off. Way to go guys! I am usually not impressed with either actor as they both usually are a tad wooden in their delivery and Kiefer mostly talks in a quiet breathy voice. He was actually enunciating his lines in Forsaken and we could hear him. The rest of the cast did a fine job and the writing was uninspired but believable. The director, Jon Cassar directed a number of Kiefers' 24 episodes and this would be why he was asked to direct this one. I was not drawn to notice the direction by it being overly poor or great so can't say I am disappointed in Cassar's work here. The set was well built and nicely designed but my one complaint with it was how the saloon was overly ornate. The columns were way over the top in design for a frontier town. Not a chance would the money have been spent to create the capitals on those columns in 1800's Western America and this caused me to notice them, thereby taking my focus away from the scene we were supposed to be watching. I spent many years in the film business in Set Dec and Props (in fact is the same location and city that Forsaken was shot) and often disagreed with Decorators or Art Directors on period pictures about the aging or colours of sets. A newly built town or building would not have aged gray looking wood on it. But they would always age it down. This annoys me greatly every time see it. The bar for any western since 1992 has been Clint Eastwoods' "Unforgiven" and very few have even come close to that level. This picture is very good for what it is but not up to the level of Unforgiven. I would recommend this one.

Kiefer and Donald Sutherland share the screen in this brooding western about an embittered gunslinger who attempts to make amends with his estranged father whilst their community is besieged by ruthless land- grabbers. Father and Son for the first time ever star in a film that truly shines thanks to their performances and a supporting cast of Brian Cox and Demi Moore. Although the film could easily have a better gun fight in the end i still thought that it worked cause of how great the 2 main actors were and the dramatic moments were really really good and the ending was really moving as son and father share the screen one last time Forsaken is a really great movie that won't leave you disappointed.

Nice surprise have in the same movie, to the most unrated actor of the 70's and the 80's, Mr. Donald Sutherland, and his prodigal son, well known because all those who knew him and appreciated his work, started to love him deeply, till we saw him saving the world, in "24"... This is a movie "with heart" and and it would not work, with other two actors. There's a lot of chemistry between father and son, and it sounds strange but it feels damn good, to saw Kiefer shooting people again, and doing this character that is a perfect mix between Jack Bauer and Josiah Gordon in "Young guns"Great movie. Entertaining and emotional.