The Last Rites of Ransom Pride   Starring: Lizzy Caplan, Kris Kristofferson, Dwight Yoakam and John Foster Revolver Entertainment RRP: £12.99 REVD2734 Certificate: 15 Available 30 May 2011

When Ransom Pride is gunned down during an aborted gun smuggling deal, his ex-lover, Juliette Flowers, determines to recover his body for burial with his mother. Arrayed against her is Ransom's father, once a killer himself, but now a preacher, he turns to his old friend, Shepherd Graves, to provide a couple of bounty hunters to find and kill Juliette. Helping her in her quest are Ransom's younger brother, Champ Pride, a dwarf and Siamese twins. Only a Mexican witch stands to gain from Juliette’s death and will do anything to achieve her goal...

The Last Rites of Ransom Pride (2010 - 1 hr, 18 min, 30 sec) is a stylised western, directed and written by Tiller Russell, who co-wrote the script with Ray Wylie Hubbard. It is stylised in such a fashion that it may not appeal to fans of traditional westerns, with which it shares only locations and a few occasional tropes. If anything the film has more in common with Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), although it is not as well made.

If you consider from the start that the film is a ‘b’ movie at heart, then there is more of an acceptance for the film's failings. It’s not that anything about it is particularly bad, but then there is also a lack of outstanding performances, script and direction. The damming praise is that the film is okay.

Lizzy Caplan plays Flowers in that ballsy, yet predictable, way that writers present strong women on the screen. Her performance is hampered by an overall weak script and editing which is style for styles sake, even though the end result makes for a choppy watch. Although he takes centre stage on the DVD cover, Kris Kristofferson (Shepherd Graves) only appears in a few scenes, the bulk of the action being taken by Caplan and Jon Foster (Champ Pride). Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister - Game of Thrones) pops up in a cameo part as the shotgun-toting dwarf, though the acting laurels must go to Dwight Yoakam (Reverend Early Pride) who plays Ransom's father and the instigator of most of the mayhem.

The disc does not have a single extra; audio is either English 5.1 or 2.0, with no subtitles.

It’s not a great film, but is a watchable independent, with a few good ideas - some borrowed - and a half decent cast. If the director had taken his arty hat off and presented a more straightforward telling of the story, it might even have been a better film, but as it stands, it is average at best.

5

Charles Packer