Corsicana

Cinema is subjective but I'm not entirely convinced I saw the same movie that all these 9/10-star reviews saw.

I really wanted to like this film but it was simply a disappointment. Painful pacing, amateur acting, laughable writing, and distracting continuity errors are among the failures that kept pulling me out of the movie and left me shaking my head at the production team from beginning to end. The lone highlight for me was the cinematography where there seemed to be an effort to spotlight the landscape of Corsicana and capture it's beauty, but even then it was overplayed and drawn out as if they knew that was all they had going for it.

Washington's directorial debut fell flat in my opinion and we are left with a hollow, even if well-intentioned, attempt at telling the worthy story of Bass Reeves.

I looked forward to seeing the story of Bass Reeves told, but not in such a lame way. Washington did a good job as Bass, but should have stayed in front of the camera. His directorial choices made it tedious and nonsensical, except creating truly heinous villains.

I admire the lack of dialogue as that was realistic, but when they did speak the words were stunted and flaccid. I can only hope that someone will actually do Bass Reeves justice by assembling a good team of writers and a quality director.

This movies actors were OK for the budget, the scenery and set were excellent, and wardrobe was well done.

I was unfamiliar with Bass Reeves prior to this, but I truly hope Isaiah Washington makes more movies about this incredible lawman. The movie was intense, and sometimes was even horrifying. It definitely does not offer a glamorized view of life in the Wild West. It was very suspenseful and had some truly evil characters. Beautiful scenery throughout and the cinematographer did a wonderful job. Makes me miss my home state of Texas. Well done to the cast and crew. I hope Mr Washington will direct more movies. He certainly has a knack for it. And his portrayal of Bass Reeves was authentic and thoughtful.

The gratuitous brutality at the start of the movie makes it something that we cannot let children watch. However, if the introductory storyline had been depicted with more innuendo, it is a good movie to share with all family members. The story line was relevant. The satisfaction of retribution was fulfilling. The acting was plausible and generally appropriate in emotional depiction. The scenery was quite astute and beautiful. Jason Johnson's knife throwing ability was phenomenal. It is good to see a movie where actual ability outranks the obviousness of a gun. This movie depicts a "fight" versus "flight" outcome that is a fundamental tenet of how men and women protect civilization.

I have really wondered for years why someone hasn't done a great movie about Mr. Bass Reeves. Oh, there have been some movies made, but they have all been disappointments thus far. Add this one to that heap. I got excited by the reviews I read here and thought perhaps it would be a hidden gem, but no. In fact I would've given this a 4 star review for their effort but I felt I really needed to off set the false positives here. I feel Mr. Washington and the movie would've benefited from a seasoned director or at least better storyboarding before they began shooting. Oh, well. Fingers crossed for the new series.