I have varying levels of surprise and anger surrounding the lack of accessibility in any given film. Typically, the low end of the scale are documentaries that are still seeking distribution, and then on the high end of my rage machine are major projects done by studios, distributors, or streaming services where the intent was clearly for that project to be a focus, and they decided to not include us. Then, there’s Rust. This is sort of a unique animal in and of itself, because of its high amount of news coverage, it remains a bit of a sideshow in the film world. Some will be curious to see, others will be strongly resistant and disgusted by others partaking, but somewhere getting lost in all of this is the fact that this is the last film where Helena Hutchinson was creating art as a cinematographer.
As a blind critic with absolutely no audio description, I lack the context to even wonder how she framed each shot. but at the same time, I can imagine that accessibility or not, convincing anyone to spend more money than absolutely necessary to simply complete filming was an impossibility. that is why Rust landed on VOD with little to no fanfare, and you might just be finding out about this.
The film cannot change the fact that Alec Baldwin is central to the film, nor can it remove gunfights from a western. It does put into perspective how important the armorer’s position is when you hear the gunshots in the film, and why it was of utmost importance to make sure live rounds were not used. regardless of the inciting incident that cost Helena Hutchinson her life, that was still a live round on the set of a film with quite a lot of gunfire. If it wasn’t in Alec’s gun, it certainly would be in someone’s, and likely that would have resulted in the death of someone else.
The thing to note here, aside from the ongoing cases and investigations, is that the family of Helena Hutchinson wanted this film released so her final work could be appreciated, and also that the profits of the film are being donated to her family. When I rented the film, there was a little message at the end from director Joel Souza explaining the choice to continue to finish the film, which was a difficult choice for him as well, as he was also struck in the incident.
So you definitely can watch Rust, but should you? The movie actually has some upsides. The lead of the film is actually a young boy (Patrick Scott McDermott) who is left raising his younger brother after his parents passed, and who gets caught up in a series of worst case scenarios that lead him to being convicted of murder. Before he is set to be hanged, an old cowboy named Rust (Alec Baldwin) rides into town, stirs up trouble, saves the boy, and heads out for parts unknown. The unlikely pair need each other to survive, and you’d be right in assuming rust is this boy’s grandfather just sweeping in to do the right thing at the absolute last minute. They are hunted by various bounty hunters, among them the main one (Travis Fimmel) seems most likely to cause a major problem. Frances Fisher is also here, and she’s magnificent.
That’s the rub about Rust, is that this isn’t some crap that was always intended to die on VOD, or be some random title you catch on Tubi. This is actually a decent film, with very competent direction from Souza, and a host of strong performances, mainly from McDermott and Fisher. The kid in this is really great, and I hope his career isn’t stunted by having this on his resume.
I also really loved the score. It felt epic, and sweeping, the way those big westerns of the golden age often did. I would definitely say the runtime is felt, and Souza could have shaved ten minutes off and I think we’d all be better for it. At some points, it feels like a video game where our main character is just working his way through low level bosses (men who will not be getting a bounty), headed toward a climatic finale. The other thing, and this is coming from someone who normally enjoys Baldwin, is he’s horribly miscast here. He doesn’t really feel country at all, and seems to have interpreted being a cowboy as trying to sound a lot like Tommy Lee Jones. he’s a producer on the film, so I’m assuming him being in the role had zero flexibility.
So, Rust might actually be a good film. I would need audio description to say that definitively, but I don’t think there’s enough bad here for me to go negative, and throw a rotten score at it. it isn’t necessarily Oscar bait, though a posthumous nomination for Hutchinson would be nice, but it is a very well shot and structured western, with maybe one casting choice I would have changed.
If you’re blind or low vision trying to watch Rust, don’t go out of your way for it. It is really hard to follow without audio description in the gun fights, and there are many of those. Plus audio description would at least give us some idea of what Hutchinson was trying to capture, as the lack of audio description would leave a blind audience with nothing.
Fresh: No Grade Due To Lack Of Audio Description