Jonah Hex
Directed by Jimmy Hayward
- western
- fantasy
- thriller
The story
Gunslinger Jonah Hex is appointed by President Ulysses Grant to track down terrorist Quentin Turnbull, a former Confederate officer determined on unleashing hell on earth. Jonah not only secures freedom by accepting this task, he also gets revenge on the man who slew his wife and child.
What it’s like
Gritty, saturated Western-fantasy with a comic-book sheen: dusty ochre plains, blood-dark sunsets, and sudden bursts of hellfire orange cutting through the grime, all shot with kinetic, slightly unhinged camera moves and jump cuts that feel closer to a graphic novel's panels than to classic Westerns. The sound is loud and percussive, with gunshots cracking like whips, a driving rock-and-electronic score, and rattling iron in the wind. The vibe is grimy, bombastic and wry, a pulpy revenge fable with dark humour rather than solemn myth-making. Pacing is brisk and hard-driven, with the lone gunslinger's arc moving from numb, bitter detachment toward a reluctant, very sour kind of vengeance. Violence is frequent and stylised, with gunfights, stabbings, and bloody wounds shown rather lingered on, plus some supernatural horror and a few crude, sexual remarks; intense but cartoonish more than sadistic. It suits fans of action-heavy genre movies on a loud Friday night, viewers who enjoy comic-book adaptations with an edge, and anyone who wants a Western that refuses to play it straight.
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