Paul Gross [most recently of Eastwick] stars as The Montana Kid in the Canadian western semi-spoof, Gunless. Best known in the U.S. for playing Constable Benton Fraser in Due South, Gross’ Men with Brooms [he directed, co-wrote and starred] garnered a cult following stateside even though it was centered around a less than well-known sport – curling. Although he’s merely the star of Gunless –written and directed by William Phillips – the film has the feel of something he’d create.
The Montana Kid [Gross] arrives in the hamlet of Barclay’s Brush astride a horse, backwards and with a hangman’s noose around his neck. When he learns, from a young Chinese girl that he’s in The Dominion of Canada, his response is a disbelieving snarl, “just when you think it couldn’t get any worse.” To add insult to injury, The Kid has been shot – in the butt!
A misunderstanding leads him to call out the town blacksmith, Jack [Tyler Mane, best known for X-Men]. Alas, Jack doesn’t have a gun. Other than rifles for hunting, no one does – except for the feisty, fetching Jane [Sienna Guillory], but it’s falling apart. She makes a deal with The Kid – if he helps her build a windmill to power her well’s pump [the water is really, really deep] – she’ll give him the gun. Of course, he’ll have to rebuild it before he can give it to Jack for their gunfight.
Then there’s the discrepancy between how many men The Kid says he’s killed and the number given in Canadian Magazine, and the bounty hunters who’ve been tracking The Kid for ten years. Plus, there’s the Mountie who welcomes him to Canada – and the way he slowly builds up a debt that plays into the film’s finale [buying bullets on credit? Not a problem].
Like many classic westerns, Gunless is filled with panoramic shots that show the beauty of the [Canadian] west and there’s the much anticipated gunfight and the showdown with the bounty hunters – not to mention the equally classic romance. Each major event is set up by juxtaposing the brusque American with the calmly polite Canadians in such a way that both are sent up equally.
Gross and Guillory are the only stars in the film – the rest of the cast is composed of Canadian character actors, all of whom, with the exception of Callum Keith Rennie [Battlestar Galactica] and Mane [who is very good as the blacksmith], are likely unknown to American audiences but will impress with their work.
Gunless may have been inspired by films like Shane – films where a gunfighter finds himself defending a town that comes to appreciate him for reasons other than his skill with a gun – but it plays with the concept in a way that will provoke more laughs than suspense [though the suspense is well done when it needs to be]. Phillips has a solid grasp of the basic differences between – and affinities of – Canadian and American cultures and Gunless uses both to good effect. He also gets immensely likable performances from Gross and Guillory – who have lovely chemistry.
Unlike such western spoofs as Silverado and The Frisco Kid, Gunless is comparatively gentle in its spoofery – but it’s almost always on target. And its more dramatic moments flow naturally from the humor.
Final Grade: B+