| Gunless | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | William Phillips |
| Written by | William Phillips |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Gregory Middleton |
| Edited by | Susan Maggi |
| Distributed by | Alliance Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 89 minutes [1] |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million (CA$) |
Gunless is a 2010 Canadian Western comedy film directed by William Phillips and released by Alliance Films.
In 1878, a hardened American gunfighter arrives in a small town in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, a place that doesn't understand or appreciate the brutal code of the American Wild West.
Gunslinger Sean Lafferty (Paul Gross), known as the Montana Kid, has a bounty on his head for killing eleven people across the western United States. He arrives in town on his horse, riding backwards, bound, with a noose around his neck, and dragging the broken tree branch over which a group had tried to hang him on the American side of the border. After being helped off his horse by a young Chinese girl named Adell (Melody B. Choi), he begins to explore the town, starting with the town general store. After leaving the store, he finds his horse gone and accuses Jack (Tyler Mane), the blacksmith, of stealing it, even though Jack was simply replacing the horse's damaged shoes. After unsuccessfully trying to intimidate the blacksmith, the Montana Kid decides to call him out. Since the blacksmith has no gun, though, Sean can't shoot him because the Kid lives by a code of ethics that prevents him from killing unarmed men.
When she witnesses this, Jane Taylor (Sienna Guillory), one of the townsfolk, says the Kid can have her broken gun (to fix and give to Jack) if he builds her a windmill. Sean proceeds to go with her and stays in a sod house at her farm, alternately working on the windmill and repairing the gun. After a few days, however, the Kid begins to develop feelings toward Jane while also becoming friends with the townsfolk.
In the meantime, a roaming band of American bounty hunters crosses into Canada and heads for the town to claim the price on Sean's head. They terrorize a camp of Chinese railway workers to find out his whereabouts.
By now – with the addition of a part repaired by the very blacksmith he intends to duel – Sean has finally fixed Jane's pistol. He proceeds to Jack's smithy to demand the duel, gives Jack the gun, and tells him to draw. However, Sean adjusts his aim so that he is pointing his six-shooter slightly to Jack's left (in a way that his shot will miss the blacksmith), providing an indication that he is done running and may want to die. The Kid tells Jack to pull the trigger, but the gun jams. The Kid takes the gun back from Jack to inspect it, but accidentally sets it off instead, with the ricocheting bullet hitting Jack in the left buttock (replicating the wound that the Kid himself had earlier in the film). After Dr. Angus Schiffron (Jay Brazeau) removes the fragmented bullet from Jack's buttock, the Kid agrees that he and the blacksmith are now even. He then prepares to leave town.
As the Kid is riding out of town at one end, the bounty hunters are riding in behind him at the other end. They threaten the townsfolk in an effort to get them to turn over the Kid. The townsfolk instead train their rifles and shotguns on the bounty hunters with the intent of defending themselves. At this time, the Kid has returned, and, not wanting any more bloodshed, Sean tells bounty hunter leader Ben Cutler (Callum Keith Rennie) that he will go with them if Ben agrees to leave everyone else alone. Ben accepts, but right then town resident Larry (Michael Eklund) sets off a pile of dynamite that he has placed under a large tree stump by his farmhouse in an effort to get the stump out of the ground. This sets off confusion and sparks a gunfight between the bounty hunters on one side and Sean and the townsfolk on the other. The battle ultimately ends in the town's favour after the Kid takes out Ben's crew without killing any of them. The bounty hunters end up being escorted out of Canada by the local detachment of the North-West Mounted Police, and Sean decides to remain in town. He says he's staying because of a bunch of debts he has to pay off, but he really stays to be with Jane.
The production was filmed at Osoyoos, British Columbia, on an approximate budget of $10 million (CA$). [2]
The film was released by Alliance Films in Canada on 30 April 2010. [3]
The film has received mainly mixed reviews.
– "... it looked like a production that should be airing on the CBC rather than in the theatre." [4] – "Gunless is harmless, the sort of pop entertainment that sets its sights low and doesn’t underachieve." [6] 
– "As funny as necessary, but not necessarily funny." [7] – "The humour in Gunless is more sitcom than scathing, playing like something that could have been called Corner Gas 1882." [8] – "The movie is sporadically amusing, but it works against itself in a couple of ways, most notably in casting affable Canuck Paul Gross as a violent Yank." [10] – "It's a genial enough comedy that's a combination of love story, cultural critique, farce and revenge yarn, which means it's none of them." [11] 
Dead Man is a 1995 American acid Western film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Mili Avital, and Robert Mitchum in his final film performance. The movie, set in the late 19th century, follows William Blake, a meek accountant on the run after killing a man. He has a chance encounter with enigmatic Native American spirit-guide "Nobody", who believes Blake is the reincarnation of the visionary English poet William Blake.
Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood. It stars Eastwood himself, as William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job, years after he had turned to farming. The film co-stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris and was written by David Webb Peoples.
Sienna Tiggy Guillory is an English actress and former model. She portrayed Jill Valentine in several entries of the Resident Evil action-horror film series. Other prominent roles include elf princess Arya Dröttningu in the fantasy-adventure film Eragon, and the title role in the TV miniseries Helen of Troy. She has appeared in TV shows including Fortitude, Stan Lee's Lucky Man, and Luther.
For a Few Dollars More is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German actor Klaus Kinski plays a supporting role as a secondary villain. The film was an international co-production between Italy, West Germany, and Spain. The film was released in the United States in 1967, and is the second installment of what is commonly known as the Dollars Trilogy.
Due South is a Canadian crime comedy-drama television series created by Paul Haggis, and produced by Alliance Communications from its premiere on April 23, 1994, to its conclusion after four seasons on March 14, 1999. The series starred Paul Gross, David Marciano, Gordon Pinsent, Beau Starr, Catherine Bruhier, Camilla Scott, Ramona Milano, and Callum Keith Rennie. The show follows the adventures of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Constable Benton Fraser, who first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father, and has remained, attached as liaison with the Canadian Consulate. He works alongside a detective of the Chicago Police Department to solve crimes. Both are aided at times by Fraser's deaf white wolf, Diefenbaker.
Young Guns is a 1988 American Western action film directed and produced by Christopher Cain and written by John Fusco. The film dramatizes the adventures of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War, which took place in New Mexico in 1877–78. It stars Emilio Estevez as Billy, and Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Charlie Sheen, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko as the other Lincoln County Regulators. The supporting cast features Terence Stamp, Terry O'Quinn, Brian Keith, and Jack Palance.
Callum Keith Rennie is a British born Canadian actor, based in British Columbia. His breakthrough role was as punk rocker Billy Tallent in the music mockumentary Hard Core Logo (1996), followed by a starring role as Det. Stanley Raymond Kowalski on the third and fourth seasons of the television series Due South (1997–99). He then won a Genie Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance in the Don McKellar film Last Night (1998).
The Missouri Breaks is a 1976 American Western film starring Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson. The film was directed by Arthur Penn, with supporting performances by Randy Quaid, Harry Dean Stanton, Frederic Forrest, John McLiam, and Kathleen Lloyd in her film debut. The score was composed by John Williams.
The Tin Star is a 1957 American Western film based on a short story, directed in VistaVision by Anthony Mann and starring Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins, in one of Perkins' first roles. The film became one of the few low-budget westerns to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Writing, Story or Screenplay. Since its release, the film has become one of the classics of the genre. The supporting cast features Betsy Palmer, Neville Brand, John McIntire and Lee Van Cleef.
Silverload is a graphic adventure video game developed by Millennium Interactive and published by Psygnosis in Europe and Vic Tokai in North America. The game was released in 1995. The player controls, via a first person perspective, a Wild West cowboy as he ventures into a haunted town in order to save a child that was taken from his parents. The U.S.-based Entertainment Software Rating Board gave the game a "M" rating for its graphic violence, blood and gore, and bits of profanity. The game was released for the personal computer in Europe, and the original PlayStation edition was given an international release.
The Grey Fox is a 1982 Canadian biographical Western film directed by Phillip Borsos and written by John Hunter. It is based on the true story of Bill Miner, an American stagecoach robber who staged his first Canadian train robbery on 10 September 1904. The film stars Richard Farnsworth as Miner. The cast also features Jackie Burroughs, Ken Pogue, Wayne Robson, Gary Reineke and Timothy Webber.
Boss Nigger is a 1975 blaxploitation Western film directed by Jack Arnold, starring former football player Fred Williamson, who also wrote and co-produced the film. It is the first film for which Williamson was credited as screenwriter or producer.
Gary Barber is a South African and American film producer. Barber was the chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He is also co-founder of Spyglass Media Group.
Lightning Jack is a 1994 Western comedy film written by and starring Paul Hogan, as well as Cuba Gooding Jr. and Beverly D'Angelo.
Ben Cotton is a Canadian film and television actor. His most notable roles are on the TV series Stargate Atlantis playing scientist Dr. Kavanagh, his portrayal of "Leon Bell" in the game Dead Rising 2, Shane Pierce, the local townie, on CBS's Harper's Island and Lt. Coker Fasjovik in Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome.
The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County is a 1970 American comedy Western film by Universal Studios, directed by Anton Leader and Ranald MacDougall, and starring Dan Blocker and Nanette Fabray, with a supporting cast featuring: Jim Backus, Mickey Rooney, Wally Cox, Jack Elam, Noah Beery, Jr. and Don "Red" Barry. MacDougal wrote the screenplay. It was originally made as a television film but the decision was made to release it to movie theaters.
Jonah Hex is a 2010 American Western superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jimmy Hayward from a screenplay by Neveldine/Taylor, the film stars Josh Brolin in the title role, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon and Wes Bentley.
The Bounty Hunter is a 2010 American romantic action comedy directed by Andy Tennant, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. The story centers on a bounty hunter hired to retrieve his ex-wife, who has skipped bail. The film was released in the United States on March 19, 2010. The film received negative reviews from critics but was a box office success, grossing $136.3 million against a production budget of $40–45 million.
Fuzzy Settles Down is a 1944 American Western film directed by Sam Newfield.
The Magnificent Seven is a 2016 American Western action film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 film Seven Samurai. The film stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier and Peter Sarsgaard. It was the final film of composer James Horner, who died the previous year after composing part of the score. His friend Simon Franglen completed the music. Principal photography began on May 18, 2015, north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.