Review of Renegade

Renegade (2011)
7/10
Ahead of its time
11 December 2012
RENEGADE probably won't go over very well with the ignorant masses, which means it probably won't score high on IMDb.

The reasons are that this Western drama is everything that those with multiple accounts, and those who try to control IMDb with their hate, that this Western dram is everything they sand against.

First, the characters are multi dimensional. They have motivation for what they are doing, as most people were at the turn of the 20th century, when this Western about miners and claim jumpers, is based, before they had Hollywood and the internet to tell them to act without motivation.

Second, and this will get RENEGADE's foes hot under the collar, the film depicts Christians in an objective manner. It is a Christian film, but it doesn't preach. It simply demonstrates, and that will get the extremists of the internet foaming at the mouth. I'm sure this review will be lambasted for its honesty, as much as the film will get negative votes and reviews by the hypocrites. This is the first review, so I said it first, before any are posted. I'm not picking on anyone. If anyone wants to volunteer to be a lunatic, they'll just have to deal with it honestly. Yeah, right.

Third, there is a fundamental problem here. The script is good, and the production value is good. The production team minds their Ps and Qs, but not the Rs.

The actors seem to struggle. They make mistakes I've seen amateurs, and some rising starts, make. They have talent, but they aren't coached in it. The leads seem to be professional, but many of the others struggle.

Even the leads have a few glitches, and I saw why. It's because the script was good, and they tried too hard to adhere to it, instead of having a natural flow. No matter how good a script is, you have to go with the feel and flow of the waters over the plans for the dam's construction.

It looked like actors who weren't always comfortable with each other. I suspect that they often went their own way home after rehearsal, instead of living with each other.

In a production like this, the Magic is most important. This is something I tried to stress with my own cable access TV show actors, but when you find good ones, people with money steal them away from you.

Not that this film lacked Magic. The trouble is that it came too late. The glitches are early in the film. The ending is very worthwhile.

It is a classic style story, ad I don't mean to be harsh on the actors. They tried. And that's the problem. They tried instead of coasted. I did the same thing in college and community theater, before I realized the importance of living in acting.

A few nit picks here and there, but this was a good film, with characters you could believe existed, and a story well told. It won't be appreciated much by the Christian bashers of the internet, and who knows if that will get worse or better. The Magic I have seen tells me it could even get worse, so this film may be way ahead of its time.
7 out of 14 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed