The Duel (2016)

Texas Ranger David Kingston (Liam Hemsworth) is sent to a town along the Rio Grande to see if Abraham Brant, aka The Preacher (Woody Harrelson), is responsible for a series of murders. "By some strange twist of fate" as David tells his wife Marisol (Alice Braga) Brant is the man that killed his father twenty-two years earlier in a knife duel that the young David witnessed. Similar in that regard to 2014's The Dark Valley where a revenge-seeking son takes on a man who has immersed himself as a god of sorts holding an almost mystical trance over the citizens.

Yes, it's all been done to death before and a whole lot better than this tired Western. The opening knife fight was well executed making me cringe with the sounds of blade penetrating flesh but the story just plods on and on. I did appreciate Hemsworth's character as an honorable man willing to bring Brant to justice, which is a refreshing return to the old days. But here's another tale where a so called religious man spouts the word of God for his own selfish interests. C'mon on Hollywood, give that trope a merciful death already.