Shadowheart
Shadowheart
| 04 August 2009 (USA)
Shadowheart Trailers

James Conners comes home to the town of Legend, New Mexico in 1865 to avenge his fathers death against the ruthless Will Tunney. Along the way he re-captures his long lost love Mary Cooper. With the chance to take Will Tunney he must choose revenge or redemption.

Reviews
Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
chaoticprime This movie was, despite the claims of many others, an excellent western. I am not sure how people define how a western should be, but I look back to the horse opera pulp fiction of the former century.This movie had a hero town between his want for revenge and moral convictions bestowed upon him with his father's dying words and a psychotic villain whose greed motivates him to acts of unspeakable horror.This film is surely vilified by the double standard held by fans of film today. It is not high-budget enough to be considered as relevant as any film that gets a theatrical release and it is not low-budget enough to get passed off as camp. If this movie were made thirty years ago and starred Clint Eastwood, it would be a classic.There has not been a villain in a western so good as this films since Gene Hackman in Unforgiven.This movie is Pulp, it is not drama, neither is it one of the pointless morality lessons written by Cormac McCarthy.There is a place in the middle between the highly stylized Spaghetti Westerns and the dramatic The Unforgiven. This movie belongs on that line.The bottom line: If you are a fan of Westerns, particularly in novel format, you will like this film. If you are a fan of films and do not like it when a movie sticks to the formula of its genre, then you should probably look elsewhere.This movie is not going to change your life; it does however entertain.
jeromec-2 Shadowheart begins with a reference to Matthew 6:14 – 15. These two verses command people to forgive those who trespass against them as God forgives us for ours. We expect the film to connect somehow to this theme.It never does.In fact, there are so many murders (I lost track after eight), only a war movie could produce more. Yet of all the pointless mayhem, only one was justified or meaningful. If we were paying attention to the Bible verse at the beginning, no one was forgiven and therefore God should not forgive us.Big SpoilerYet the very last scene shows the dead wife of James Conners, the main character, leading him through the white light to what lies beyond – presumably heaven. We expect to see something about forgiveness and we get pointless retribution.I did not like this film not because of the violence. I think the Godfather Saga is a timeless masterpiece. I did not like this because it had Christian overtones. I think Fireproof is a good film that addresses the difficulties of modern marriage. Fireproof has many weaknesses, which a viewer has to overlook including what I think is an impossible problem to overcome. Still it's an interesting film. I disliked this film because it was disjointed. I disliked this film because it did not seem to know what it was trying to do nor where it was going. I would like to say that there was some sort of redeeming feature, but I don't think there was.I gave it a four because I kept hoping something coherent would happen. There was enough writing to create hope, alas never fulfilled.
dsadler40 The movie was great. The first comment was absolute trash and he needs to just enjoy movies for movies, and not "critique shots" and think that him and his child could write a better plot. It isn't always about the technical aspects. You are just looking for something to be wrong with every movie and can't enjoy a fictional tale. It's like getting upset with the Matrix because there's no way you could do any of that. So I guess what you are saying is that Tombstone sucked too eh? (No I bet you liked that one even though the good guys had a fraction of a chance. But I guess that's OK since it's Kilmer and Russell, right?) It is essentially the same story, which most westerns are. Good guy comes in to clean up town controlled by bad guys. Just GAD and learn to enjoy the stories for once.
RyanBodieFilms I liked the movie. I shot a movie at Paramount ranch and I really liked how they used the town. It is not very big and yet they gave it a very large western feel.Production Design was great.I thought the acting was great in some parts and just OK in others.The sound design and score was perfect. Subtle yet a character in itself.It very much had a faith feel to me. It was like a Christian movie for adults...until then end. It only looses this faith feel as the man carries out his vengeance. In fact, the big title line is: A Man Comes for Revenge....and Finds Redemption. However. he never finds redemption. He comes for Revenge and eventually gets it.Conclusion: a little long, slow at parts, but overall was a good film.