Now Showing: Sins of the Father

 

Sins of the Father

Genre: Western/Drama/Action

Director: Yann Demange

Writer: Jimmy Ellis

Cast: Jack Reynor, Mel Gibson, Zoey Deutch, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Sarsgaard, George Katt, Ann Dowd, Langley Kirkwood

Plot: Eli Whitely (Mel Gibson) stands before a town inside the church. The camera remains as a close up to his face as he starts to speak, his speech is sophisticated like. The camera begins slowly rolling backward to show more of Whitely his arm movements become more erratic as he quotes the bible. As the camera continues to roll back further we see the pastor being held at gunpoint by a member of Whitely’s posse. He reminds the people that Jesus had dies for their sins, and all they want to do is squander their opportunity. He tells them there is only one thing he needs from them. He then falls silent. “Vance Harden.” Everyone in the room look around, no idea what he is talking about. Whitely then snaps at the townfolk, asking them if they like games, a rhetorical question, as he continues on his rant. He tells them that in this game if they give him what he wants they win everything they could ever wish for. And if the answer’s wrong, well hopefully it doesn’t come to that. A baby then begins to cry. Whitely in silence stares at the crying baby and it’s mother. The mother manages to quiet the baby down. Just as he is about to begin talking again an older man raises his hand telling him he ain’t ever heard of a Vance Harden. Whitely smiles and thanks the man before nodding at the man holding the preacher. The man shoots the preacher dead. The townsfolk begin to panic but he yells at them to sit back down, this is for the greater good. As he exits the church the doors are closed, and one man barricades the doors shut. Members of the posse then light the church on fire as Whitely gets on his horse. Screams can be heard on the inside and as he lights a cigar Whitely recites phrases asking for forgiveness. Men and women dive out of the burning church only to be shot dead by his men. Whitely and his posse ride off.

SINS OF THE FATHER

A young man (Jack Reynor) herds in some cattle and shuts the gate after a long day out on the pasture. A young woman stands at the entry to the house, she calls out to him, “Vance” and tells him supper is ready. Vance yells back saying he’ll be there in a second. He makes sure the gates. He begins walking back to the house not before going into the barn to tidy it up a bit. He then grabs a knife and throws it at a makeshift target, hitting dead centre.

He heads inside and thanks “Willow” telling her it smells lovely as always. Another man, Walter walks in and takes a seat. He has a grumpy look on his face. Willow re-enters the room and calling Walter daddy asks him how his day in town went. He tells her it was terrible no-one wanted any of his produce or pelts. She tells him that they will come around, they have before and it’s not like anything’s changed. He tells her it ain’t that simple, new suppliers have been popping up everywhere and he just can’t keep up. He apologises to Vance telling him he can’t pay him, he doesn’t have enough money. Vance tells him a hot meals good enough as he shoots a smile to Willow’s direction, she smiles back.

Later on, Vance sits in the barn, on his bed, staring at the ground. Willow stands at the entry, he looks up to her, tears running down his face. She asks him if he’s been thinking about that boy again. “I killed that boy.” She reassures him it was not his fault, he had no idea, he was just trying to survive. Vance tells her that’s just the thing, him trying to survive led to a young boy being shot to death while his mother watched on, he did nothing to help, just rode off into the sunset, like a ghost. She continues to remind him that it was his fault, hell he doesn’t even know if it was his bullet that hit the child. Whitely’s men fired first. He adds that he ain’t ever killed nobody and his first is an innocent child, sure he was trained by his father from 10 to 15 to kill but he hadn’t ever done it before. She comforts him as he says he wished it was him instead of that boy.

Whitely arrives back at his camp and walks straight toward a large tent, being greeted by everyone he passes by. He steps forward to a man in chains, he slaps the man telling him his boy wasn’t there. The man, Calvin Harden (Peter Sarsgaard), looks up, battered and bruised, he reminds Whitely that he never said his boy was there, hell, he hasn’t seen his own son for 15 years. Since Whitely destroyed his life. Whitely reminds him that the only reason Calvin is alive right now is to watch all of his loved ones die. Calvin pleads with him asking if killing his daughter and wife wasn’t enough. Whitely sits back on his chair saying an eye for an eye, and Calvin killed his boys, so, well, he’s gonna kill his. Calvin yells saying that it was different, his was in a gunfight not revenge, not pure destruction. Whitely stands back up and gets in Calvin’s face, “they were still my fucking boys!!!” before punching him. Before leaving the tent he tells Leo DeKnight (Langley Kirkwood) to deliver the beating of a lifetime. We follow Whitely out of the tent smoking as we hear punches land. Whitely continues his walk toward a young boy, he tells him to run into town and fetch sheriff Lockley, he wants a meeting with him.

Walter and Vance work on the property, feeding the animals, cleaning up the place. Walter tells him not to try anything with his Willow, he sees the way they look at each other. Vance tells him that Walter took him in all those 15 years ago, and he’s been gracious enough to give him food and a roof under his head for all those years, he wouldn’t dare. Walter says that if it comes to it he won’t hesitate, he will kick Vance off his property. Vance laughs, “You need me.” As they stop for some lunch, Walter bids farewell for the day, he’s going into town to see if he can earn some money. Willow and Vance get to taking and the two of them get closer. Willow begins kissing him, he tells her what Walter had just said but she doesn’t pay any mind, just that he won’t find out anyway. They then continue to kiss and head into Willow’s bedroom.

Back at the camp Whitely sits in a tent awaiting the arrival of Sheriff Lockley. Lockley (George Katt) comes in and removes his hat immediately. Whitely offers him a seat. Lockley begins to speak but Whitely cuts him off, reminding him that he was the one that brought him here for the conversation so he will be the one to speak. He reminds Lockley of the job he did for him all those years ago and that Lockley still owes him a debt, a debt of which he wants paid off now. Anything, Lockley tells him. Whitely demands that a bounty be placed on Vance Harden’s head, ALIVE only. Lockley asks what it is he did, Whitely tells him that he killed a kid. Lockley stands and rushed out of the door straight away, wanting to get back to town as quick as possible. DeKnight asks Whitely if he really did kill the kid, Whitely says he has no idea.

Walter is in town trying to sell his pelts, but potential suitors don’t want any of it. He even resorts to begging one of them just to give him anything for it. The man tells him that they are worthless. Walter walks back to his horse dejected. As he rides past the sheriff’s office a deputy calls out to him asking if he’s still looking for money. He tells Walter that his boots can do with a good cleaning. Walter hitches the horse and heads into the office to clean the deputies’ boots. Lockley returns to town on horseback and tells his deputy that they have a new bounty going out, Vance Harden. Walter pops his head up intrigued. He apologises for eavesdropping but asks what it is he did. Lockley tells him that he killed a kid, he asks Lockley how much the bounty is worth. Lockley tells him $3,500 but laughs at the fact Walter is considering taking it. Walter looks down apologising and tells Lockley he knows where Vance is and to follow him. Lockley immediately saddles up but tells him they need to make a stop along the way.

Vance and Willow stand at the entry of the house as they see Walter riding up with someone, then it is revealed he is riding up with a whole posse. Vance runs inside grabbing his pistol, and Walter’s rifle. He tells Willow he needs to go and she should come with him, she asks why he is so frantic and he tells her that the man with her father is Whitely. Willow immediately jumps onto the horse with Vance. Walter yells out to him saying he knows what he did, and he needs to let his daughter go. Yelling back Vance says he thought after 15 years he could trust Walter but evidently not. Whitely smiles as he realises the chase is on. He turns to Leo telling him to lead it, he reminds him he wants the boy alive. Walter goes to ask Whitely a question but Lockley speaks up first asking if he should chase or stay back with Whitely. Whitely tells him he can hang back, he has someone he needs leaded anyway. Lockley looks to Walter and whispers for him to keep his mouth shut and go inside. Lockley grabs a hold of another horses reigns and pulls it with Calvin on the back. As they leave Walter heads back inside the house with some money.

Willow asks Vance where they will go, he tells her that he knows somewhere they can hide out for a little while, but only for the night, they just have to lose the posse first. A storm is brewing up ahead and Vance is riding right into a canyon. In the overcast and windy weather he rides toward the top. The posse are on the ground looking for him. Vance sets up with a rifle on the rock above as he tells Willow to lie down. He begins firing, taking out one member of the posse, remembering all those years of teaching his father gave him. He fires once more taking out another, gunshots begin coming back but they have no idea where he is. Whitely tells his men to regroup and retreat, he can’t get to far. Vance tells Willow that this is there chance to get going.

Willow and Vance arrive quietly in New Hope, a small town, maybe small enough to hide indefinitely. Vance knocks on the door of Evie Barlow (Ann Dowd), she immediately ushers them inside. He introduces Willow and she says it’s lovely to see them but guesses that it mustn’t be good news. With a shake of his head Vance assure her it is not. Whitely has caught up with him. He assures her that they will leave first thing in the morning but she reminds him that she is not scared of Whitely, and that the two of them can stay here for as long as they wish. Vance appreciates the gesture but reiterates that they should be on their way come morning. The three of them have a longer conversation, about where he has been for the past 15 years, him telling her that Willow’s father was nice enough to take him in. The three of them have a nice dinner and a drink.

Whitely wakes up his posse and tells them that they will go to every town in search of Vance Harden, he tells them that there is to be no funny business with any of the folk. They ride at night as they know Vance would need to stop somewhere.

Early in the morning Whitely and the posse ride into New Hope. He fires his gun in the air, waking the town. Evie among other townsfolk walk out of their houses. Evie calls out asking what he wants. One thing, it’s simple really. He’s looking for a young man. A man that goes by the name of Vance Harden. He adds that there is a large bounty on his head. This is backed up by Lockley. Evie tells him that no man by that name has venture round these parts. Just to make sure he tells Calvin to say hello. After a few moments Whitely feels satisfied enough to leave. One of the posse blows a kiss toward Evie as they all leave the small town. Vance ever so slightly looks out the window, and sees that it was in fact his father. After they have left he tells Willow and Evie that he has to go after him, who knows what he’s been doing to his father. Willow and Evie look to him and remind him just how many men Whitely has. He says that 1 vs 10 isn’t too bad and one of them is a lawman that he is sure doesn’t want to be in the predicament. He grabs the rifle from the kitchen and walks out onto the street. He fires killing one, then another. The rest of them turn around wondering what that just was. Evie then walks out of the house and fires a rifle of her own, killing one. She hides behind some cover. Whitely yells out to his men telling them to get Vance. Meanwhile Vance is climbing a ladder to the roof of a barn. He sets up and fires once more killing another. He yells out to Lockley while hiding to tell him he knows he wants out of this, all he has to do is join in fighting Whitely. Lockley hesitates, then shakes his head. Whitely looks back smiling, instead of joining Lockley cuts Calvin’s ties and rides away this allows Calvin to crawl behind a house. Whitely furious storms over to Evie’s house. Evie rises and aims the gun at him, he punches her, then grabs her by the neck. He yells out telling Vance to stop what he’s doing or he kills the lovely old lady. Evie reminds him that she isn’t scared of him. Willow runs out of the house and hits Whitely over the head, but this just angers him he hits her, then hits Evie to the ground. The rest of the townsfolk are inside by this point.

One of the posse members had climbed up the ladder and is brawling with Vance on the roof of the barn. Whitely sees this and begins firing in that direction. He manages to hit Vance but only in the leg. It does cause Vance and the man he was fighting to tumble from the roof, he does however land in some hay. The other man was not so lucky. Leo then runs around the back shooting him in the leg. He then grabs Vance by the head and drags him out to Whitely. Whitely tells the other two to grab Calvin so he can see his son die. They go and grab Calvin from the ground. Vance is placed on his knees, Calvin a metre away from him facing him in the same position. Willow is forced into the same position to Vance’s left and Evie to his right. Whitely stands in the middle of all of them and holds his hands out. “The son, the father, the girlfriend and the old hag. All here to die together. Calvin, obviously you’ll go last, so who goes first?” Evie spits at his feet, “I guess it’s you.” He places the gun at her head, he looks to Calvin, smiling. He pulls the trigger. Willow screams out, Vance looks angrily at Whitely and Calvin is basically passed out. Whitely wipes blood off his face. He then walks over to Willow, and does the same thing, Vance tells him not to, he will go first, Whitely asks why he would listen to him, he wants him to suffer as well. Suddenly a gunshot occurs from Whitely’s right. Walter stands at the end of the street with a rifle. He shot Whitely only skimming his arm, but the bullet hits Leo who was holding Vance still, Whitely shoots Walter. Willow tries to run to her father, but one of the men holding Calvin hold her. Vance tackles Whitely, causing him to drop the pistol. Calvin with most of his energy headbutts the man holding him. He then grabs the handgun that Whitely dropped and turns to shoot him. He then shoots the one holding Willow. Willow runs to her father. Calvin tries to shoot Whitely who is on top of his son but it is out of bullets. Whitely repeatedly punches Vance, with Calvin having no energy there is very little he can do. Whitely stands and grabs his gun back. He reloads it. Vance stands with a bloody face, staring his death in the face. Whitely looks back to the almost lifeless Calvin and tells him this is what he wanted all along. An eye for an eye. Just as he’s about to fire the gun, Calvin tackles him to the ground. The gun shot goes off but the gun is dropped. Whitely gets Calvin off of him and he looks up to see Vance with the gun. Just as Vance is pulling the trigger, Whitely says, “Thank you.” Vance drops to his knees, witnessing the carnage that had been caused. He looks down to his father, who tells him he is proud before dying. Willow calls out to Vance, Walter is still alive, blood is coming from his body at a quick speed. He calls out for someone to help. The doctor runs out with a kit in hand and begins to save Walter. Lockley rides in all smug like, he tells Vance that he needs to come with him, he is wanted for the murder of a child. Vance finally realises that it was not him that killed that child, it was Whitely, all of this was Whitely. He tells Lockley that he can take him in, but he will make sure everyone knows he is a dirty sheriff and on Whitely’s pay roll. Lockley just turns around and rides off telling Vance that he’ll make sure to remove his bounty.

Vance, Willow and Walter who sports a walking stick, walk toward a gravesite, the gravesite is of the young boy that was caught in the crosshairs. Vance has a tear come from his eye as he take a knee and place a flower upon the grave. Willow says a few words as the camera fades away.