Review of Jane Got a Gun (2015) by Eddie G — 08 Feb 2016

Classic western. Rooted in the decade or two after the Civil War where large criminal gangs dominated areas of the American west and got rich running the brothels, terrorized ordinary inhabitants, and achieved status not unlike The Mob when Sicilians gangsters arrived on the East Coast a couple generations later. Extraordinary combination of dialogue, camera work, production design, and a tight story that follows the four main characters over a dozen years. Easily comparable with "Unforgiven" and "Shane." You also get to see, again, the special talent Natalie Portman showed us first on stage as a teenager when she brought us "Anne Frank" with every practical nuance of the magic of the diary and that life.

This "Jane" is fundamentally a war movie -- its conflict has no connection to mercy. If you go to westerns looking for a moral point, like "Star Wars," fergeddaboudit.