The Night They Came Home

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As an avid fan of Westerns and always looking under that rock for the next great story-regardless of budget, i.e. "Bone Tomahawk"-I tried to give this one a chance. This one absolutely sucked from the first scene on; and kept getting worse. I stuck it out, but it's nearly two hours I will never get back. The dialogue was preachy and dumb. The camera work was erratic and novice, oftentimes looking like it was filmed on a iPhone. I'm amazed that shows like this make it beyond the pitch to production. This movie was absolutely horrible in every measurable way. I would rather take up crochet or eat a warm bucket of hamster vomit than sit through this hot mess of a feeble attempt at cinema.

Tim Abell carries this well-directed Western as Deputy US Marshal Heck Thomas and delivers his best performance yet as he brings this kickass, no nonsense lawman to life. Newcomer Charlie Townsend sells it soundly as outlaw Rufus Buck and it was good to get a cameo from Robert Carradine (The Long Riders). Considering it was based on a true story, there were some historical facts that needed to be explained, which may have affected the pace but stories have to be told and that takes time. Production value was solid. All in all, it was a well-told story with great action sequences, and far better than some recent Westerns with bigger budgets. Well worth a look!

Decent Story "B" western... The movie had a pretty good story line. I liked how they presented the viewpoints of different groups and people fairly and realistically, although a bit difficult to swallow at times. It looked like pretty low budget otherwise, but the actors were very well cast I think and most of them did a pretty good job. People have sort of likened it to a Cage movie where you can't quite decide if it's good or bad. But at the end, I'm glad I saw it. It had a realistic message which was explored somewhat with the interactions between the different groups and different interests. I think a good point it made is that getting along is largely determined on an individual by individual basis and how they've decided to fit in into an imperfect world. Sometimes the good guys had good points, sometimes the bad ones did. Nobody's perfect, and this was a good exploration into the complex communities which existed and vied for influence in the twilight years of the Wild Wild West. Some people will surely find it a bit cringe that any of us ever acted this way, but this is just fact. I didn't regret seeing it, let's just put it that way. I would give it 3-4 stars for the actual production, but the story/dialogue/performances really rose above the other issues with sets/wardrobe and were more like around a 6 or so. I'd say this is just about average all things considered; Acceptable.

Worst piece of garbage of social justice, of weakly written, poorly conceived, and stink up junk to waste film on. The costumer should be fired. The prop person should be fired. The writer should be fired. The director should be fired. A low budget film can happen. Case in point: Bone Tomahawk. Obviously that movie was made on a dime. Some of the costumes were meh, but at least the dialogue sparkled with a sort of authenticity. As an actor it must be torture to recite lines that are so poorly written, so full of anachronistic language. About the only good thing in this flick was the gang's demise.

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 * 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.