The Duel

This film tells the story of a young boy who witnessed his father being stabbed to death in a duel. Years later, he is sent to a remote border town, where Mexicans strangely disappears. He investigation and brings the culprits to their rightful justice.

"The Duel" is not like an ordinary Western film. It is not just about bar fights and senseless violence among ragged men, seeking revenge after revenge. Instead it tells a story that is more than revenge. For a start, the main characters are all well dressed with good self care, which is a refreshing change. The plot emphasises on how the new couple settles into a new town, being embraced and rejected by its residents at the same time. Woody Harrelson portrays a charming leader of the town, yet his two faced character can be chilling at times. The use of snakes though, it a little over the top, and makes me wonder whether that is a realistic portrayal of life back then.

Good cast,nice and interesting script but something's missing I don't know what exactly. Bad rating from the majority of the subscribers but I wasn't feel right the 2..4 or phrases like"waste of time" No it wasn't so bad ...but i agree that it's not a film for all.(I've read some reviews).A pleasant western film with quite fascinating plot.I'm not so much into the western films but I've enjoyed this one ...it wasn't captivating or something like that ,but not boring either.Everything was in place,every piece of the puzzle,the plot was there,the actors was there ,the action was there but something was missing.The whole movie was good though(6.7/10) even if I wanted,basically I needed a different ending .So,as a conclusion i want to say that the movie is worth seeing and enjoyable.Both Hemsworth and Harrelson were great and made the movie better .

A number of citizens of Mexican origins are disappearing and the bodies, some of them, have been found floating in the Rio Grande. A Mexican general played by Jose Zuniga is threatening to do a Pancho Villa and cross the border as his niece is one of the missing. That prompts the Governor of Texas to dispatch one of his best Texas Rangers, Liam Hemsworth to a remote region to investigate a town called Helena.

A former Confederate colonel Woody Harrelson is a Reverend Jim Jones like character who holds sway there. Hemsworth has his work cut out for them, more than he could ever conceive.

There are certainly elements of The Most Dangerous Game here, but add to that the cult like devotion that Harrelson enjoys. Plus he's making good money for himself and the town of Helena with his most dangerous game. He's opened it up as a business, it's clear that the Mexicans are substitutes for black people as I'm sure the word is out to avoid the area and Mexicans are plentiful across the river.

None of the drama in that original Most Dangerous Game is present here. Harrelson is a compelling figure, Australian Hemsworth is convincing as a Texan.

The whole thing falls way short of a classic and even as a western, most western fans will find this way to weird.

"We cannot separate ourselves from sin anymore than we can sever a limb from our bodies." There has been a rash of unexplained deaths In the small town of Helena, Texas. With no clue as to what is going on, David Kingston (Hemsworth), a Ranger is sent to investigate. When he arrives he discovers some strange characters including Abraham (Harrelson). The more David investigates the more he questions what is happening. This is a movie that had a chance to be really good. The cast is A-list and the plot is interesting. Where the movie fails is the pacing. This is just agonizingly slow that it made it really hard to pay attention to and I was really starting to drift and lose interest in. There are some interesting parts in this but a lot of the drama was lost on me because I struggled to stay involved in what was going on. Overall, a disappointing western that had a chance to be good but was just too slow and boring for me to get invested in. I give this a C-.

Regrettably, the great genre of film that is the Western struggles mightily in our present time. Most Westerns are now low-budget, like The Duel, but that does not mean that it should be written off (I was pleasantly surprised that the recent release Forsaken was a decent Western). There are some positives in this film, yet negatives are rampant and I will note the primary ones.

This film features a decent cast and an interesting story which involves an investigation surrounding missing people and an occult leader that has come to control the hearts and minds of the people of a small Texas town. However, besides a respectable performance by Liam Hemsworth, the cast is mediocre and forgettable with Woody Harrleson topping the list as being a cliché villain with forgettable, pretentious faux-intellectual dialogue.

The action is average at best, and above all else there is a feeling that the writers or producers wanted to inject their opinion regarding the current treatment of Mexicans (something a reviewer on Roger Ebert's website noted) into a script already bogged down with murder, missing persons, revenge, a husband-wife relationship, a mysterious town, and a religious occult leader. It is subtle. However, it seemed out of place and unnecessary but that does not stop Hollywood from forcing a narrative or agenda into a movie, does it?

Overall, this is a movie that had promise, but sub-par acting and a feeling that it did not know which plot point should receive the most attention weakened the film as a whole. If you like Westerns, you may find it more alluring because of the genre. Nevertheless, it is a one time watch that struggles and does not contribute anything of great worth.