Gunless – An Alliance Films Release

http://gunless.ca/

DVD Release Date: August 17th, 2010

Rated PG for violence.

Running time: 89 minutes

William Phillips (dir.)

William Phillips (screenplay)

Paul Gross as Sean ‘The Montana Kid’ Rafferty

Sienna Guillory as Jane Taylor

Dustin Milligan as Corporal Jonathan Kent

Tyler Mane as Jack Smith

Callum Keith Rennie as Ben Cutler

Graham Greene as Two Dogs

Bonus Features Include:

• Behind-the-Scenes

• Construction Design

• Dance Hall

• Guns of Gunless

• The Good, The Bad and the Canadians

Our reviews below:

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Gunless DVD Review By John C.

*1/2 (out of 4)

Paul Gross plays American gunslinger ‘The Montana Kid’ in the Canadian western Gunless.  When he stumbles into a small town in western Canada, he challenges the local blacksmith to a shootout for no good reason, and starts to develop feelings for a local widow.  The plot is aimless and features many lame, sometimes sick jokes and obnoxious stereotypical characters.  It’s borderline racist, too, even for Canadians.

The humour is of the same lowbrow variety of every lame Canadian sitcom, and the dramatic and action-based scenes have no palpable sense of drama or suspense.  The credits feature a pointless blooper reel filled with swearing and jokes about flatulence, making this both more and less appropriate for the kids that will surely enjoy it.  A disappointment, considering the pre-release buzz, Gunless is laughless, pointless and ultimately rather boring despite only running for 88 minutes.

The DVD includes several featurettes on the making of the project.

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Gunless DVD Review By Erin V.

*1/2 (out of 4)

‘The Montana Kid’ (Paul Gross) accidentally ends up riding into a small Canadian town where he gets into a disagreement with the local blacksmith, whom he then ‘calls out’ to solve things in a showdown.  Unfortunately, he is gunless.  And Wild West code states he can’t shoot an unarmed man.  A local woman then welcomes him to stay at her place, where in exchange for helping her finish a windmill, he can fix up an old pistol of her’s for the showdown.

I guess the people behind this film tried hard.  A fake set was built, costumes made – a lot of time and money was put in.  It’s a small – or large, depending on what you compare it to – Canadian production, and I really wanted to like it when I first heard about it.  Unfortunately, I knew once it started, what I’d heard others say, was true…  Among other things, it was very stereotyped.  Maybe the script could have done with a serious rewrite.

Gunless is a film that is dressed up to look like a Western, but doesn’t seem to know what it actually is.  Scenes of drama (that lack true dramatic tension), scenes of comedy (that aren’t really funny), and a showdown with everyone shooting that just has you watching boredly predicting the next move before it happens, don’t make up a good movie in my book.

And another note, technically, the title makes more sense in French, which rather than Gunless, is Désarmé (Disarmed).  No one in this film is truly gunless – without working pistols maybe, possibly voluntarily disarmed, but not ‘gunless.’

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Gunless DVD Review By Nicole

*1/2 (out of 4)

What is this film meant to be?  A comedy, or a drama?  Taking place in 19th century Western Canada, in a small town called Barclay’s Brush, this film follows an American outlaw named The Montana Kid (Paul Gross).  After accidentally ending up in Canada, after escaping a hanging, he gets into an argument with Jack the blacksmith, and demands a showdown.  The thing is, this is Canada, and nobody carries pistols.  The Canadians in fact, are stereotypically polite, and everyone welcomes “The Kid” with open arms.  A kindly Chinese family makes him new clothes and a nice, hardworking woman welcomes him into her home.

At this point, the film feels like a really bad sitcom.  Until we get a scene with real bad guys, who (thankfully off screen) shoot a puppy for no reason, and threaten women and kids.  The only point of this scene is to illustrate (which was obvious already), that, while “The Kid” is troubled, he is not really that bad.  He actually has a nice side, and questions his fighting past.  This is where the film tries to be a drama, which it falters at as well.

Gunless is a boring film, that doesn’t know what it is.  Despite nice scenery, period costumes, and old buildings, this film could have been better.  Skip this one, and read about real history instead.

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Gunless DVD Review By Maureen

*1/2 (out of 4)

Gunless could be more aptly named Funless. Judging by the period costuming and the authentic set of an imaginary Canadian Western town called Barclay’s Brush, Gunless is a Western.  Beyond that, it’s hard to describe this movie.  If it’s meant to be a spoof of Westerns then it falls flat.  If it’s a comedy, then why dark scenes such as a villain shooting a dog off-screen, or talk of wife abuse.  If it’s a drama, then why the lame attempts at silly comedy.  Basically there is no real sense of action or adventure that you would expect from a real Western.  The characters, including The Montana Kid (Paul Gross) are no more than caricatures or stereotypes.  The overly polite gunless Canadians are also a joke.  Unless you are a Westerns fanatic skip this one.

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Gunless DVD Review By Tony

** (out of 4)

A horse walks into a frontier town in western Canada with a wounded rider, who turns out to be a wanted American gunslinger, Sean Rafferty (Paul Gross), known as The Montana Kid.  For no good reason he challenges the local blacksmith to a shootout that according to the code of the American west requires that both use pistols.  Since this is Canada no one seems to have one, until pretty farmer Jane Taylor (Sienna Guillory) offers him a broken antique that she will allow him to repair if he puts up her windmill.  Over the next few days Sean’s attitude softens as he climbs the learning curve of cultural differences, and the locals come to his defense when a posse of mean American bounty hunters comes after him.

I wanted to like this film more than I did. As an ambitious Canadian anti-western project, it looks good, with a frontier town constructed for the film in Canada’s only true desert around Osoyoos BC.  The script, however, often falls flat with too many stereotypical characters typical of a bad Canadian one-horse town sitcom, such as Graham Greene as the token native looking on in bemusement from atop his horse. I would recommend it to younger viewers for its historical references, as long as they leave before the closing credits. Throughout the film, crude language is avoided, as the script tries to be faithful to Canadian and American English of the period, but in the blooper reel over the credits the actors show no restraint unleashing their real vocabulary.

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Consensus: Gunless doesn’t seem to know what tone it’s going for, and ultimately ends up being a disappointment. *1/2 (Out of 4)