One of many micro budget films with a washed up star plastered on the poster, The Night They Came Home pretends to retell the story of the real life Rufus Buck gang.
But instead of a western biopic, what we get are endless musings about race and white-man-bad. The writers did put some nuance into the dialogue though, and it's not as stupidly on the nose as a Disney production or something of the sort.
There are some moments of genuine tension (when they come across a man and his son who they hold an impromptu trial for), and some moments of nuance. After giving a long speech about the injustice of racism to a reporter, once the reporter is gone, the gang breaks out in laughter at the idea of the reporter having bought that cock and bull story.
It is a testament to the actors portraying the gang members, that the ridiculous writing can be brought to the screen at all.
Charlie Townsend as Rufus Buck has genuine talent and will hopefully receive better material in the future.
Production value is nonexistent here, color grading is awful for the most part, and the cheap digital look can make even nice landscapes look terrible. I get better looking shots on my Iphone.
The music is stock music quality as expected.
Danny Trejo has a glorified cameo as narrator so they could put him on the poster, but his scenes just suck the air out of what little narrative there is.
Overall it's quite terrible, but there's talent among the cast.
