The Duel Pits Hemsworth Against Harrelson | Film Review

Growing up, my Father and I would spend Saturday mornings watching westerns for hours at a time.  After his passing, although I have always loved them, I took up a renewed interest in the genre.  When it comes to The Duel, the movie I wanted to see and the movie that I saw were two totally different perspectives. I grew up with the “Old” idea of what a western was, and if you are looking for that in this film you might be sadly disappointed.

The Duel stars Woody Harrelson as Abraham, a charismatic “David Koresh” or “Jim Jones” type cult leader, although this fact seems a little vague throughout the film.  You do see glimpses of Woody’s acting ability as the sadistic villain but, at times, it seems a hair overdone and slightly pretentious.  It is not a bad role for him, it simply seems as though the writing is very disjointed at times, with Woody offering very little in his performae to save the film.

Liam Hemsworth stars as David Kingston, a Texas Ranger who takes on the job of finding out why so many deaths are happening to Mexicans in the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Hemsworth also does very little to add to the potency of the script, and turns in what I would call one of those “Yep, that was not one of my favorites either” moments in an actor’s career.  As we learn in the beginning of the film, there is a deeper connection between Abraham and David, though that connection will not be revealed here.  Let’s just say this could have served as a great story line and, with a better script and less focus on making a complicated movie, it would have been.

I wish that director Kieran Darcy-Smith would have put more thought into his direction and strived harder to fix the gaping holes in this story. The writing falls flat and for the first hour, you continuously ask yourself if anything interesting is ever going to happen. There are a few good action scenes and the cinematography of the shoot is just amazing at times, but as far as the story goes it leaves us scratching our heads. Darcy-Smith also could have used a better approach at telling the story of the “Helena Duels”, offering very little explanation about this in the final story line.

As stated at the beginning, I have loved westerners for as long as I can remember, and I did respect the realism in the script. I also appreciated the filmmakers for not falling into the “I can fire this gun forever without reloading” or “I can shoot a revolver and hit a target with ease at 100 yards” tropes of the genre.  The supporting cast is, at best, a back drop to this film, except for Emory Cohen as Abraham’s son, Isaac.  He turns in a very solid performance and came dangerously close to stealing the show from Harrelson and Hemsworth.  With Harrelson overplaying the villain and Hemsworth just turning in an OK performance, Cohen made it fun.

I have enjoyed other non-genre following westerns before this, unfortunately The Duel is not one I could recommend. In my humble opinion, save yourself some time and mosey on by.