A Hell of a Slog
When a curious errand boy catches wind of one of America's most infamous crimes, he falls in with two desperate men on the wrong side of the law. Crossing paths with some of the West's most notorious figures, these three outlaws fight for their lives in the pursuit of fame and riches.
As a rule I always try to write the synopsis for my movie reviews myself but I found myself having to use the one from the product description for "The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy". The reason being is that I struggled to follow what was going on in this western right from the word go and the longer it went on the harder it got. That brings me to the first point and I am sure the story to the cliff formation which is where the legend of Hell's Gate comes from is probably a fascinating one and maybe the original story they came up with for this movie was also a fascinating one. But this is one of those movies where it feels like those making it have forgotten that the audience haven't read the script and as such some of the decisions the producers and director have made leaves those who don't know the story to start with at a loss.
And truth be told it is a shame because stylistically this is not the weak sort of western which you find it make for TV movies and sort comes half way between those and say "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" when it comes to the feel. Even the acting whilst not great is certainly not the terrible sort of thing you might expect. But this brings me to my second point and that is whilst Jenna Dewan Tatum appears in the movie it is only briefly and to be honest Summer Glau whilst having more scenes has a pretty boring part to play.
Now I could go on but to be honest as I struggled to get in to and really follow "The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy" I would be dragging things out. But I will say one thing as whilst technically this is a western it is more of a historical drama and as such doesn't have the same atmosphere of a western. As such if you watch hoping for some action, adventure, excitement, romance and maybe even some humour the chances are you will be left disappointed.
What this all boils down to is that "The Legend of Hell's Gate: An American Conspiracy" didn't do it for me and found it incredibly difficult to get into as it feels like it is a movie made for those who already know the story on which it is based.
