A Million Ways to Die in the West
2014 · Directed by Seth MacFarlane
Original language: English
- comedy
- western
The story
As a cowardly farmer begins to fall for the mysterious new woman in town, he must put his new-found courage to the test when her husband, a notorious gun-slinger, announces his arrival.
What it’s like
Bright, sun-bleached desert daylight over dusty main streets, with wide establishing shots of Monument Valley-style mesas and crisp, saturated colour that makes the whole frontier look like a postcard someone has been slightly too eager to send. The camera stays mostly conventional and open, favouring broad two-shots and crowd-filled saloon frames where the gags can land, and the score leans on bouncy, cheeky western strings with the occasional anachronistic pop cue for punctuation. The vibe is raunchy, scruffy and self-consciously silly, a loose, good-natured spoof of Old West tropes with the bawdy energy of a late-night sketch show. Pacing is brisk and jokey, with a steady stream of crude one-liners, slapstick and cameo bits, and the emotional arc is simple: a timid, neurotic farmer slowly finds nerve and a bit of self-respect. Violence is comic and cartoonish, with gunfights, bar brawls and a few shootouts that are bloody in a played-for-laughs way, and there is plenty of sexual innuendo, crude humour and profanity throughout. It suits a lazy weekend night with friends or a rainy afternoon when you want something loud and irreverent, and it is for people who enjoy gleefully rude, sketch-style comedy over sincere drama.
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