A retired triggerman comes face to face with the consequences of his past actions and is forced to take up arms one last time, but this time to protect his family. The Old Way is a 2023 release directed by producer and actor Brett Donowho. The plot of the movie revolves around how an ex-gunslinger is forced to lift up their arms one more time because of his past deeds.
This time he teams up with his daughter to face the son of a guy he may have killed during one of his past jobs. The movie stars the well-acclaimed Nicolas Cage known for movies like Moonstruck, Leaving Las Vegas, and Red Rock West, among many others, as the gunman, Colton Briggs. Young actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong has been cast in the film as Nicolas cage‘s character’s daughter, Brooke.
Ryan Kiera Armstrong is popular for her roles in It Chapter Two, Black Widow, and Firestarter. Kerry Knuppe plays Colton Briggs’ wife, Ruth Briggs. American actor Noah Le Gros, known for A Score to Settle, Wolves, and Cecile on the Phone, has been cast as James McAllister.
Clint Howard is in the film as Eustice Abraham, a member of McCallister’s gang. The film, The Old Way, has a wide supporting cast working with the protagonists. With a running time of no more than 95 minutes, The Old Way is available on Prime Videos for watching.
The Old Way Storyline
The Old Way is set in the late 1870s, with Nicolas Cage’s character, Colton Briggs, as this big cold brute who is not afraid to shoot a gun. The scene opens with the public execution of one of the McAllister brothers. But the entire execution gets foiled when the McAllister gang comes to take away the guy about to be hanged. The interruption leads to a shoot, and Colton ends up shooting the younger McAllister brother.
He does so with a swiftness that lets the audience know that this is not his first rodeo. After shooting the younger McAllister brother, Colton leaves the place, and the camera shows a young James McAllister witnessing the entire ordeal.
The movie takes a twenty-year leap, and we see Colton again, now a changed man with changed ways of living. He has found himself a family, including his wife, Ruth Brigss, and a twelve-year-old daughter, Brooke. He has moved on from his violent ways and now runs a town general store and owns a bit of farming land. He has a loving relationship with his wife but not so much with his daughter.
A conversation between the two shows that Brooke is not that expressive but is distant and gutsy, much like Colton twenty years ago. While both Colton and Brooke are away one day, Ruth is approached by a strange group of men.
The leader of the group identifies himself as James McAllister, the young boy who saw his father get killed, now all grown up. Ruth gets murdered ruthlessly, and the gang leaves a message for Colton to let him know that they will be back again.
Upon returning, both father-daughter find Ruth dead, and Colton returns to his murderous way in just a blink of an eye. He vows to take revenge for his wife’s death, and we find him donning his outfit from back in the day and preparing to go on a revenge quest. Brooke may be defiant and cold, but she is still a young child and Colton’s only family, so he tags her along with him.
During the time he spends finding James McAllister, he also teaches Brooke how to protect herself, shoot a gun, and how to take care of herself. Eventually, the two stumble upon Franklin Jarret, a marshal, and his deputies, who are investigating the murder of Ruth.
McAllister and his gang had already set up ways to deal with the law and get them off of their back. Colton, along with Brooke, threatens Franklin into talking about James’ whereabouts. They find that James has plans to cross the border and go away till things calm down.
Colton and his daughter continue their journey in pursuit of James further. The duo reaches Santa Rosa, where they were told James would be staying before leaving the country. Brooke is sent as an innocent bait to find the exact location of James, but it seems that the latter has caught on to what may be happening. Brooke is captured by James, and Colton is forced to make a move to save his daughter.
Even though it has been twenty years since he last picked up a gun, Colton manages to shoot almost all the members of McAlistor’s gang. The movie reaches its climax when one of the remaining gang members comes out from hiding with a gun pointing at Brooke.
The final showdown takes place between Colton on the one hand and James McAllister and his remaining gang member on the other. James offers two options, though both sound like horrible choices from Colton’s perspective.
He could either shoot James and get his daughter shot right after, or he could shoot the other guy and get himself killed, followed by his daughter. Though not an easy choice, Colton chooses to risk his life to protect his daughter. He ends up making a choice any father probably would and shoots the last remaining member down to his death.
Immediately after this, another shot gets fired by James McAllister, and we see Colton Briggs meet an immediate death. James is happy, finally getting the revenge he had wanted for so long, and enjoys his moment though it does not last very long. We see Brooke picking up her father’s gun and shooting her first proper shot, having learned from her father before, and killing James in a second.
As soon as all of this comes to an end, Franklin Jarret and his deputies enter the place where they find all of the dead bodies and Brooke standing among them. Brooke begs Jarret to let anyone who asks know that Colton Briggs was a hero even in his last moments and that he died while protecting his daughter. Jarret agrees to do so.
We see that Jarret has let Brooke go with whatever money James had stolen, along with a horse, to rebuild her life and reopen her father’s general store. The movie comes to an end with Brooke riding away on the horse toward her new life.
The Old Way Review
The Old Way is directed by actor and producer Brett Donowho, who, in various interviews, has expressed how much he wanted to make a movie based on the western genre. Having grown up on a ranch with cattle himself, The Old Way is almost a dream come true for him, and having Nicolas Cage as Colton Briggs was a cherry on top.
The film was shot in Montana, which has definitely added to the American western genre. The movie has stayed true to the western drama genre, be it with locations, the classic cowboy outfits with cowboy hats, and a handlebar mustache.
The movie does not fail in taking one back to the late 1850s. The western genre of movies is not something that is highly trendy right now, and at a time when the audience is actively looking for films that actually have some potential to keep them engrossed and entertained for two hours, this genre has mostly become a parody.
There are not a lot of producers investing in and putting out the western genre, so this makes the movie seem even more out of place. Nicolas Cage made his acting debut through films in the early 1980s and has since done a plethora of films.
It comes as a surprise that he has never done the western genre before, though he seems made just for that. Even so, Cage has failed at doing justice to both his character and the movie. And this might not entirely be his fault.
Though the shooting took place in Montana, one cannot fully immerse themselves in the movie because the writing and the cinematography all make it seem like it is trying too hard, and it just looks a bit over the top. Nicolas Cage has tried hard to fully get into character and embody the tough-guy-with-a-dark-past persona, but it just is not convincing enough.
The fact that the movie is a western genre based around this story of revenge is all too cliched and overdone. The movie, even though a genre, not many try, seems to offer nothing new and is just so predictable. Having said this, the strange father-daughter dynamic that has been portrayed by Nicolas Cage and Ryan Kiera Armstrong is probably the only thing to look out for in the movie.
Brooke, though young, reminds us of Colton’s early days. She is cold, distant, and not very expressive. Colton, too, seems to not have changed a lot. When with his daughter, they both just end up in awkward and uncomfortable silence, not knowing how to act.
It is interesting to see that both the young girl nor Colton don’t spend a lot of time grieving over the loss of Ruth. They are quick to change gears and switch quickly to plotting a revenge plan. It is also interesting how the two bond during their traveling days and how Colton teaches her to survive and look after and protect herself.
This feels like a foreshadowing that Brooke may have to take care of herself in the future, and it ends up coming true. The plot of the movie can be figured out pretty easily. Though director Brett Donowho has said that making this movie was a dream for him and that he always wanted to make this universe come alive, it still seems that he did not think the movie through.
The movie has everything that someone who is not familiar with the genre could guess. It seems like a cheap remix of all the western genre movies ever made. The movie, with its revenge plot and Colton’s tough gunslinger character, is all very one-dimensional.
Both the plot and the characters lack depth. The fact that it has a running time of only 95 minutes makes it feel like the crew just wanted to get it over and done with. The audience is not given the time to familiarise or empathize with the characters, and the revenge plot is just shoved into their faces.
The movie has tried hard to keep the American west feeling alive, but it all looks very comical. It is impossible to watch the movie and take it seriously. The backdrop of the sets, the motivations behind the characters, and the traits that have been assigned to them are all superficial and unconvincing.
The movie has tried to portray both the father and daughter as individuals who are most definitely struggling with mental health issues, but it doesn’t spend much time exploring that aspect either. The slight effort that was made to add Colton’s and Brooke’s mental health issues are also half-done and not talked about throughout the movie except for one or two instances.
Nicolas Cage either did not get proper instructions regarding his character or he literally just followed whatever little he was told. Ryan Kiera Armstrong, as Brooke, also feels bland and emotionless. Maybe that was the point, but it was quite boring to see her act.
It is, after all, a movie even Nicolas Cage could not save. The movie is exactly how you would imagine a western movie to be. It lacks creativity and originality. It seems that the director failed to decide what he actually wanted from the movie.
Our Verdict
Nicolas Cage is an Academy-Awards-winning actor and has, throughout his career, given his fans tons of iconic films. So, if it is a movie and a character that even he could not save and bring to life, then one is left to question if a movie is even worth watching or not.
Unfortunately for The Old Ways, the answer is no. The movie, with its western genre, is more or less a failed experiment. Director Brett Donowho tried to introduce something new, and he failed at it real bad. We don’t know what occasion calls for watching a western movie, but if you absolutely have to, then surely there are better western movies to watch than The Old Way.
Our Rating: ⭐ (2/5).
Also Read: Top 10 Roles Performed By Nicolas Cage
