ANY BULLET WILL DO

ANY BULLET WILL DO

FILM REVIEW BY FIORE

The folks at Papa Octopus are at it again.  They’ve just released another film in the Western category, ANY BULLET WILL DO.  Like their last Western, A RECKONING, this film is written and directed by Justin Lee.  It stars the studio’s staples Kevin Makely and Todd Robinson, and tosses in Jenny Curtis, Bruce Davidson and Meg Foster.  Unlike A RECKONING, which was a slow, plodding tale, ANY BULLET WILL DO is a rip-roaring adventure harkening back to the Western’s of Hollywood’s Golden Era.  I haven’t seen a decent Western since Robert Duvall and Kevin Costner shot it up in OPEN RANGE, so I really enjoyed this movie.  If you like Westerns, I think you will, too.

Makely and Robinson play Hollis and Everett Ransom, respectively; two brothers who fought in the Civil War on opposite sides.  (Ransom was also the name of Jimmy Stewart’s character, Ransom Stoddard, in John Ford’s classic, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE.)  Everett discovers his brother is in love with a black woman.  He is furious and hangs her before his brother can head West with her.  The brothers never met on the battlefield.  When the war ends, Everett takes a band of his fellow Confederates, and they become marauders in the wilds of Montana.  Hollis tracks his brother, seeking revenge, working as a bounty hunter for a gold mining company.  When Everett robs a shipment of gold, the inevitable conflict between the two begins.

Technically, Lee relies on his stalwarts, Will Turner as director of photography, and Michael Tang as editor.  Turner provides sweeping vistas and intense close ups.  Tang paces the film well, but there are several glaring continuity errors.  For example:  in a scene where Hollis is aided by Rose Gage (Curtis) to a cabin, he is hatless, yet once they enter the doorway, he is wearing a hat.   Little slips like this serve to disrupt the narrative.  ANY BULLET WILL DO was shot on Red One cameras and edited on Adobe Premiere.

I have a special place in my heart for Westerns.  It’s a film genre seen too rarely on the silver screen.  ANY BULLET WILL DO satisfied my Western craving.  Although a bit of modern ideology creeps into the script, it does not overpower it and become the focal point of the tale.  The Civil War pitted brother against brother.  ANY BULLET WILL DO does the same in the literal sense.