Review of The Hero (2017) by Lyn — 28 Nov 2017

I'm not sure any gunslinger Sam Elliott has played in the movies was any braver than Elliott himself was in playing this part. Also not sure how many people want to see a film about an older guy just diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

(Not a spoiler; we learn this right away.) It isn't a depressing film, honest. But while Elliott and his character are early 70s, when you see him from behind -- white hair, scrawny frame, neck skin with tire tracks in it -- he could be 99.

Elliott portrays an actor who naturally is quite privileged, despite not getting calls for movies anymore. Yet his late-in-life struggles and insights have a universal quality one can identify with (say, at middle age or later).

There's a scene with Katharine Ross --his real wife, playing his ex-wife -- that is beautifully subtle. Not sure about the 30-something girlfriend who turns up, but she quotes Edna St. Vincent Millay so I'll give her a pass.