Wild Horses: A Dull Cowboy Soap Opera
Robert Duvall wrote, directed, and starred in Wild Horses. Duvall indulges us with another gruff cowboy role as Scott Briggs, an old time rancher with a past full of mistakes. The film opens with Scott walking in on his son, Ben Briggs (James Franco) having an intimate conversation with another boy, Jimmy (Darien Willardson). Ashamed of his gay son he kicks both boys off the ranch at gunpoint. Fifteen years later Texas Ranger, Samantha (Luciana Pedraza-Duvall) enters the scene and chooses to reopen a cold case: Jimmy’s disappearance fifteen years ago. This storyline may sound like a typical crime thriller but Wild Horses is far from thrilling, more like a dull cowboy soap opera with varying levels of acting …show more content…
Davis (Adriana Barraza). There is a scene in the film where she becomes emotionaly distraught over the loss of her son. It was the most real, and believable scene in the whole movie. Cue the tears! Mrs. Davis’ complete anguish over Jimmy’s missing person case never being solved obviously weighs heavily on her and when the truth of what happened to her son is finally brought to light, her relief and anger are so intertwined that nothing else in the scene matters. She immediately takes center stage in the scene, bringing it to a whole new level. It truly turned out to be the best scene of the entire movie, even Duvall becomes invisible during her emotional …show more content…
One of the oddest subplots starts with Scott at a secret meeting, bossing around a corrupt cop, Deputy Rogers (Jim Parrack). He enlists the deputy for help and then that subplot ends abruptly without accomplishing anything. In another scene all of Scott’s kids sit around a large table listening to his will being read, when an outburst reveals a large family secret but its never mentioned again after the reveal. Another random subplot begins when KC Briggs (Josh Hartnett) threatens Texas Ranger Samantha but again it leads absolutely nowhere making the audience wonder what the point of these 10-minute scenes are supposed to be. Duvall seems to enjoy films with deeper meaning but the deeper meaning of Wild Horses is lost because of the inconsistency and is really just a patchwork of different themes including hate crimes, immigration, family values, gun control and corrupt cops. Maybe he wanted to include every major issue in the media currently and just decided to throw it into the pot? When you mix too many colors of paint together it just turns into a muddy mess and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened with the ridiculous amount of themes this movie
Robert Duvall wrote, directed, and starred in Wild Horses. Duvall indulges us with another gruff cowboy role as Scott Briggs, an old time rancher with a past full of mistakes. The film opens with Scott walking in on his son, Ben Briggs (James Franco) having an intimate conversation with another boy, Jimmy (Darien Willardson). Ashamed of his gay son he kicks both boys off the ranch at gunpoint. Fifteen years later Texas Ranger, Samantha (Luciana Pedraza-Duvall) enters the scene and chooses to reopen a cold case: Jimmy’s disappearance fifteen years ago. This storyline may sound like a typical crime thriller but Wild Horses is far from thrilling, more like a dull cowboy soap opera with varying levels of acting …show more content…
Davis (Adriana Barraza). There is a scene in the film where she becomes emotionaly distraught over the loss of her son. It was the most real, and believable scene in the whole movie. Cue the tears! Mrs. Davis’ complete anguish over Jimmy’s missing person case never being solved obviously weighs heavily on her and when the truth of what happened to her son is finally brought to light, her relief and anger are so intertwined that nothing else in the scene matters. She immediately takes center stage in the scene, bringing it to a whole new level. It truly turned out to be the best scene of the entire movie, even Duvall becomes invisible during her emotional …show more content…
One of the oddest subplots starts with Scott at a secret meeting, bossing around a corrupt cop, Deputy Rogers (Jim Parrack). He enlists the deputy for help and then that subplot ends abruptly without accomplishing anything. In another scene all of Scott’s kids sit around a large table listening to his will being read, when an outburst reveals a large family secret but its never mentioned again after the reveal. Another random subplot begins when KC Briggs (Josh Hartnett) threatens Texas Ranger Samantha but again it leads absolutely nowhere making the audience wonder what the point of these 10-minute scenes are supposed to be. Duvall seems to enjoy films with deeper meaning but the deeper meaning of Wild Horses is lost because of the inconsistency and is really just a patchwork of different themes including hate crimes, immigration, family values, gun control and corrupt cops. Maybe he wanted to include every major issue in the media currently and just decided to throw it into the pot? When you mix too many colors of paint together it just turns into a muddy mess and unfortunately that’s exactly what happened with the ridiculous amount of themes this movie