Mark Allen Michaels is back and after the fun he had with his last film in the horror-comedy landscape, Vampyrz on a Boat, the storyteller turns his keen eye to the western milieu with Joe Crist. Dallas Valdez is the bounty hunter Crist and is tasked with immediately establishing a hardened persona that connects the audience emotively so that it will be believably altered after he is literally blown away. When he awakes from a 40-day coma, he looks at the Old West a wee bit differently.
After a blood-soaked beginning, the title character is firmly established through Valdez’s clear command of his character. When he awakes from that coma, he is firmly altered. Whereas before he was a messenger of death and justice, now, he has abilities that never surfaced prior. To his surprise, they all involve him, now feeling compelled to help those who need it.
When Crist finds himself in a church collecting his thoughts after what he has endured, filmmaker Michaels sets the tone that will catapult the tale through its conclusion. A pastor says, “It’s as simple as knowing the difference between right and wrong.” And yes, the Jesus Christ connection will not be lost on the viewer. A comment by the doctor when awakes immediately sends the mind down that road. Also, there’s the title of the film and the surname of its lead character.
The thing is, Joe Crist has faith strewn throughout it and has a clear message about the choices we make in life and how it is never too late to redefine ourselves, but it never hits you over the head with it like a certain Mel Gibson film. This is still firmly a Western with a good versus evil modus operandi. Crist is on a mission, literally, and miracles are sure to follow.
Westerns traditionally do just fine without adding heart in the form of having a love interest or potential love interest involved. Perhaps it’s a time issue in that there is so much for our hero or anti-hero to do—or they may be the classic archetype loner. Not so with Michaels’ latest. There is a love interest teased, someone who was also featured in Vampyrz on a Boat, the camera adores her, Carrie Keagan. The actress portrays barkeep Maggie. There are some sparks between her and Joe, before and after his 40-day coma.
Michaels has crafted a western that breathes a bit of fresh air into the stale-ish lungs that is the classic genre. Hollywood goes through stages where the envelope of the Western is pushed (Unforgiven comes to mind in its “lessons” about the taking of a life). Who would have thought that the insertion of a little faith and the idea of a Christ-like character roaming the West—especially one who killed previously without a care—is a powerful premise for the sometimes-tired genre of the Western.
Grade: B