Echoes of War (2015)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

If you are expecting a shoot 'em up western, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a film that examines the aftermath of the Civil War in somewhat brutal terms and offers a "that was then, this is now," perspective to the average, impoverished white Confederate soldier coming home from the war, this is your film. Editing could have been tighter while keeping the pensive tone. There's some elements of metaphor that should have gone just a little deeper with another draft on the script (who perishes, who survives & manner of disposal). It seems that most apt films about the South are made by foreign directors, starting with Renoir's The Southerner. The Aussie director gets a lot of things right, and for that, I will indulge some of the dialogue and pacing issues. Ethan Embry disappeared into his role, and the film is worth watching for that. Could have done without the graphic bedroom scene early on (not that I'm opposed, just that it wasn't necessary to establish the character as evil), but I'm guessing it was supposed to be a metaphor for how the wealthy barons of the South raped it even after it was no longer the Grand South? If that's the case, then the character is both baron and carpetbagger in one, which is a little odd, but we'll roll with it.

Most Westerns show something totally unrealistic. This shows something like it would actually have been.First, everyone is poor. The trapper family have always been poor. Their neighbours were once prosperous cattle ranchers, but their cattle are gone. They are reduced to trapping, but they don't have much skill with it. They trap illegally on the land of the trapper family.The head of the family, whose wife has died, is religious and puts up with it. But his brother-in-law gets offended and feels the need to do something about it.Separately from this, the daughter of the house is seeing one of the sons of the former rancher.All this happens shortly after the Southern defeat in the US Civil War. Both the rancher family and the returned brother-in-law fought for the South. The brother-in-law is haunted by memories - what we'd now call Post-Traumatic Stress.A slow-burning conflict develops from there. Not exactly an action movie, but showing the grim reality that most films ignore. It clearly doesn't please those who expect Westerns to be like live-action video games.

A. Even if you can download this off the internet and get it for free, DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME! B. Supposed to be a Western era period piece but the characters talk like modern urbanites. C. The story is unimaginative, mundane, and clichéd. D. The dialogue is so horribly written, who the heck were the idiots who read this trite B.S. and figured it was a good script to make? E. The pacing of the whole film is sooooo slow, it is soooo mundane. F. The acting is downright laughable. These poor people who were acting in it looked stiff and stilted. G. I should've watched the trailer before I saw this. Even the trailer is insipid. H. The directing is non existent. The shots in this film are stale and trivial. I. Even if you can download this off the internet, get it for free, AND someone pays you to watch it...DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!

This is the worst western I've seen since 1974. That was the summer I filmed my best friend, Jimmy R, with my new Kodak Super 8, wearing a Cardboard Stetson, shooting rubber tipped plastic arrows off the back porch of the ranch he shared with two siblings and his mother and father....When I say ranch, I mean a single level modern home. This was Chicago after all. How is it possible that a screen writer could lay out dialog this unrealistic? This was so off period (If I may coin a phrase) that it seemed to be a sketch for a TV variety show. Western set in the nineteenth century? Please say you're kidding me. These characters speak as if they're millennial's chatting at a Starbucks. I have written several short stories, published a couple. I'm a hack with degree in Creative Writing who's best quality is recognizing great writing, rather than writing great. I suppose that it is for that very reason that I get so irritated when I read a novel, or see a film, that money, a lot of money, has been spent on its production. Nobody saw this coming? Somewhere there is actually an executive producer who read this screen play, stuck a finger in the air, and called out, BRILLIANT? The only redeeming aspect of this two hour cattle pie is a few of the actors who tried very hard to pretend they were in the atmosphere and situation that the set and script called for. Valiant efforts to be sure, but not near enough to prevent me from wanting my money back. And it's sad. I love a good western. Who doesn't? There are several factors that go into writing a screenplay, rules that need to be followed to keep the story flowing smoothly toward its climax. And the rules are followed here. The screenplay and script seem to have been put together well. Technically, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Echoes Of War. It's just a bad bad boring movie that moves along slower than a 90 year old break dancer. Echoes Of War is to be missed. Life is way to short to spend any of it on this film. Trust me on this.