Review of The Hero (2017) by Aj C — 03 Jul 2017

In "The Hero," Sam Elliott plays a hard drinking, pot smoking, has-been actor who is heading for the last roundup - literally. The movie is a western without six guns, horses or ranches. Elliott lives in the world of Hollywood dreams and family regrets. He takes us along with him in his final and difficult days facing the sentence of an incurable cancer, all the while his voice and face dazzle and delight the screen. The slow deliberate lines delivered to perfection by Elliott make tinseltown cowboys caricatures of the old west. Elliot slides in and out of reality dreaming about the one great role he played 40 years ago in a movie with the same name, titled "The Hero.".

The pictures of Elliott above the Pacific are a life metaphor and the slow pace of the dialogue gives the film a feeling of finality where Elliot seeks forgiveness from his ex-wife and acceptance from his estranged daughter. Elliott played a love story for the same writer/director Brett Haley in "I'll See You in My Dreams," opposite Blythe Danner. Elliott's love interest in this film is considerably younger than Elliott, but there is not the least awkwardness in age differences. Take it from an old guy, love knows no age. Elliott is the quintessential western hero looking to right wrongs, especially his own. As Elliott says, "movies are about other people's dreams." This is a movie about one cowboy's dreams that he reluctantly is forced to face.