REVIEW BLACKLIST

REVIEW Blacklist

Era

The 1800s / Post Civil War

Locations

Western

Budgets

Medium

Genre

Drama, Adventure Drama, Crime Drama, Period Drama, Western, Epic Western

Logline

After his daughter and wife are brutally raped and murdered by a gang of criminals, JAMES goes on the hunt to track them down and get revenge.

Strengths

The addition of Burmester's little subplot is compelling. This is an example for where the script has some clear originality. The fact that Burmester wants revenge over something that happened in the past, and regards the Civil War, is compelling. Having James taunt him as his family is back at home getting killed adds some depth to the entire subplot, too. Burmester coming back around in the finale is a strong callback. It's completely unexpected, despite the foreshadowing being there. Juan has one of the most effective voices in this script. He's evil, and the sequences involving James getting information out of him are brutal and captivating. Having him begin to taunt James works nicely for his character. Steele adds intrigue to this world as well. The audience is able to see that he has a heart early on when he attempts to stop Cooper from allowing the rapes to happen. His death, in the end, ends up being one of the most emotional and tragic moments in the finale of the script, and that's a testament to his development (when he comes back around to help James). , This could get made on a medium-sized budget (at minimum) to pull off the time period and action. On a production and tonal level, it could be related in scale and tone to TRUE GRIT meets 3:10 TO YUMA.