A Tale of Two Guns

• Written and Directed by Justin Lee
• February 17, 2022

A gunslinger hunts down the last surviving member of a notorious gang of outlaws called ‘The Cowboys.’

Cast Tom Berenger and you automatically got cred for a Western. The man has the voice and the look for being in one. Sadly for the people backing this his time as a known commodity has long been at an end. And really he is just in this movie to add his cred to this. His character of Marshall McTeague is injured very early and mostly disappears from A Tale of Two Guns about 30 minutes or so in being replaced by the much less capable actor Ed Morrone (who?) as Artemis Hollinger who becomes the center of Story A.

Story B of this film involves Abel Cruz (Casper Van Dien) who’s the last surviving member of The Cowboys and on the run after the shootout in the opener seeking to start a new life. Van Dien is certainly no great thespian but far better than Morrone who is about as convincing as Bugs Bunny dressed as a woman when trying to trick Elmer Fudd.

There is a bit of a theme in this of being that a person can change. That’s mostly the point of the story. Personal redemption. Abel Cruz has decided to put it all behind him since everybody died and move on. And based on real history that could certainly happen. Many Western outlaws give up the outlaw life in one form or another.

A Tale of Two Guns is a low budget production that tries to use once known names to give it a little bit of a boost rather than focus on making a quality film. Aside from Tom Berenger and Casper Van Dien there is Judd Nelson as US Army Captain Mathias, Jeff Fahey as a random person in a bar scene named Bill, Danny Trejo as another random person in the same scene named Junior, and in a mini–Starship Troopers reunion we get Jake Busey as easily dispatched Cowboy member McCloskey.

Danny Trejo is always welcome but what I want to understand is what was his purpose? He was just a random criminal. And then there’s Jeff Fahey whose star has long since faded. Holy crap! There are a lot of people here to give it a sheen of talent. The problem is none of them are the stars!

Aside from the theme, this certainly has a message at least part of the time and that’s the United States has stolen land. When two characters go back-and-forth on whether or not the property belongs to the United States government or to Apaches you know there’s a message. Because they go so hard with it in those moments it stops the story.

The shots are tight and the cast is small. You hear plenty of people via ambient noise but you almost never see any beyond those in the immediate frame. The impression of others is all done with sound effects and the longer this goes on the more noticeable it is. When the scene is at a place that is settled or an establishment that is supposedly crowded the more obvious it becomes.

I think the ending would’ve worked with a better actor taking over for Tom Berenger as the lead. Or maybe even McTeague in the wrap up coming to the realization that people can change. There is no growth or change on the part of any character. Nothing learned or earned. The story idea is good. The problem is not the direction or even the cheapness of the production. The problem is the main actor. He’s outclassed by just about everyone. His delivery is bland and flat. He looks the part but he can’t play the part.

I like the framework of A Tale of Two Guns. I just don’t like Ed Morrone who is in too much of the movie. Morrone just didn’t have the skill to pull it off. A lost opportunity.