Showdown in Yesteryear

Grennell is the perfect actor for the main character. He reeks of authenticity. The target audience, older male John Wayne fans, will immediately recognize him as one of their own. He behaves exactly like a genre fan would if they suddenly found themselves in a western. Most of us believe that we would have flourished in a bygone time.

Graf is one of the most ornery varmints I have run into in a western. He steps further than most actors by acting like the real tough hombres that the movies are just a shadow in a fancy hat of. Of course, you have to be tough to stand up to the great Wells. He continues his cavalcade of villainy with Orson, who takes the kind of roles Jack Palance made famous and does it 12 times better. As a fan of his classic mohawked turn in The Road Warrior, I’ve followed his recent work; Wells has gotten more sinister with age. Of course, it can’t be all badass all the time. Lamb does an excellent job representing the non-murdering side of frontier life. She has an easygoing delivery that steps outside conventional acting. Lamb radiates a warmth that follows her like a flashback trail.

“…shoots way higher and farther than expected.”

I love how Golden Age fantasy conventions are fused with Western lore throughout Showdown in Yesteryear, like a gun-slinging land of Oz. It’s nice to see cowboy magic being played with outside of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books. The real draw here, though, is the cinematography by Dean Bundy. Boy, can he shoot? The level of expertise with which the gunfights are filmed is astounding, with furiously quick angles and frame whips. The director of photography takes all the tricks the Italians brought to the table and amps up the recipes. 

Showdown in Yesteryear shoots way higher and farther than expected. I don’t know how many non-fans of the genre it will convert, but if you love to ride the range, then this will put bullets in your belt.