X
- 2019
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 40 m
- 2019
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 40 m
Summary An undertaker profits when outlaws take over an American frontier town on the California Trail, but his family comes under threat as the death toll rises. Set in the harsh American frontier landscape of 1849 the film is about greed and its consequences. It is a Faustian tale of outsider Patrick Tate who lives with his young family on the...
Directed By: Ivan Kavanagh
Written By: Ivan Kavanagh
- 2019
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 40 m
- 2019
- R
- Saban Films
- 1 h 40 m
Never Grow Old
65
6.5
Where to Watch
Summary An undertaker profits when outlaws take over an American frontier town on the California Trail, but his family comes under threat as the death toll rises. Set in the harsh American frontier landscape of 1849 the film is about greed and its consequences. It is a Faustian tale of outsider Patrick Tate who lives with his young family on the...
Directed By: Ivan Kavanagh
Written By: Ivan Kavanagh
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
65
75% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
65
75% Positive
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
13% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
13% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
It’s too monstrous and mean-spirited to please everyone unconditionally, but I found it challenging and honest — and hair-raising enough to work as a modern morality tale in cowboy boots.
A classic, if downbeat, addition to the canon.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 19 User Ratings
6.5
68% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
26% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 19 User Ratings
6.5
68% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
26% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
5% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
If you like the pacing of a drama western, then this is a good one to watch.
First, the bad. John Cusack, although not horrible,does not necessarily nail his role. He brings a certain mystery but it never becomes any more than him being a complete evil bastard. Also the plot was a bit predictable, yet i still enjoyed it.
Now the good. Emile Hirsch nails his performance and does what he does best with acting with his facial expressions. He is very good at delivering lines with his eyes without muttering a word. When he does speak he is believable and his irish accent is on point.
Overall i thoroughly enjoyed this movie more than i expected to. It was engauging until the end and i recomend it to people who enjoy westerns or drama. The visuals in this movie can be quite stunning.
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Ugly, bleak, gritty, and enjoyable
I guarantee you've seen this story before – a good man who either abhors or has renounced violence forced to take up arms so as to protect the innocent from a villain. You can find it deployed in westerns such as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Firecreek (1968), and in genre films as varied as Collateral (2004) and Death Sentence (2007). Filmed in Connemara (standing in for Oregon), Never Grow Old is the latest to roll out that narrative template. And although the script isn't going win any awards for originality, the film has been put together with undeniable craft. It's bleak and gritty, and whilst it won't change your life, it is rather enjoyable.
Oregon, 1849; the town of Garlow is governed by the local Methodist preacher, Pike (Danny Webb), who has forbidden alcohol, gambling, and prostitution. On the edge of town, the town's undertaker, Irish immigrant Patrick Tate (Emile Hirsch) and his wife, French immigrant Audrey (Déborah François), along with their two children, lead a simple life. That changes when Christopher 'Dutch' Albert (John Cusack) and his men roll into town looking for a man who stole from Dutch. After finding him, Dutch decides to stay in Garlow, procuring a group of prostitutes and reopening the saloon, killing anyone who crosses him. With his undertaker business thriving because of the spike in violence, Tate stays out of things as best he can, although Audrey is disgusted that he's prospering because of Dutch. Soon, however, Tate's family will come under threat and he'll be forced to decide what he must do.
Thematically, the idea of paradise awaiting us in the next life, specifically the notion that the afterlife will be a lot better than our earthly existence, is alluded to throughout the film. And it's really not too hard to imagine a better life than the one writer/director Ivan Kavanagh presents in Garlow, which is literally a one-road town. However, this isn't the parched, dusty environment of beige, yellow, and light browns that we're all used to seeing in westerns. Rather, it's bleak and forlorn; the buildings are dark brown, almost black, the clouds hardly ever part, it rains a lot, and the road itself is nothing but mud. The life of a European in the Americas of the 19th century wasn't easy, and one of the film's most successful elements is in showing us some of why that was.
Never Grow Old has the structure of a morality tale or a Mystery play, looking at issues such as religious hypocrisy and self-righteousness. It even takes time to briefly address the Native American genocide, with Pike sermonising about how the colonists saved the land from "savages". The most obvious theme, however, is greed. Tate is complicit with Dutch's violence insofar as he accepts and ignores it, even profiting indirectly because of it. Audrey and several of the town's more religious folk are disgusted with this, and there are multiple references to Tate getting his "30 pieces of silver". A recurring motif is to cut from Dutch killing someone to Tate cleaning the body to hiding his payment away in a tin buried in the house. When we first see the tin, there's little in it, but as the film goes on, it becomes fuller and fuller.
Indeed, the film has several visual moments like this which convey thematic points sans dialogue. The opening shot, for example, shows a tattered American flag hanging on a burnt building, immediately introducing the theme of violence. In another early shot, we see Pike preaching to a packed church. Later, however, after Dutch has reopened the saloon, Pike's church is shown to be almost empty, making reference to the dwindling church attendance that we're seeing today. Another nice visual touch is that the saloon is directly across the road from the church, symbolising the battle between hedonism and piety that continues to this day.
In terms of problems, the script isn't exactly original, with every character an archetype we've seen before. Additionally, Emile Hirsch joins a list of actors who have completely butchered the Irish accent; everyone from Tom Cruise to Tommy Lee Jones to Val Kilmer to Brad Pitt. Hirsch isn't as bad as any of these, but his tendency to drop in and out of the inflections on a word-by-word basis is distracting. Another slight issue is that towards the end of the film, Dutch starts reading from the Bible, quoting Revelation 19:17. It's more than a little on the nose, and really, a villain quoting Revelations is itself a cliché.
Overall, however, I enjoyed Never Grow Old far more than I expected. It's bleak and gritty, but it's very well made, with some nicely conceived visual shorthand. An uncompromising look at the harshness of frontier life in the 19th century, the film suggests that stoic individualism is no substitute for a vibrant community. There's nothing here you haven't seen before, but Kavanagh handles the genre elements well and has made a rather enjoyable film.
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A well-made, rough-edged and solid frontier fable with a distinctive look and fine performances all around.
Never Grow Old isn’t a top-shelf western, but it’s thoughtfully made, with something to say about how even in a country that encourages rugged individualism, community matters.
Kavanagh’s second coup was in giving this too-familiar tale just the right star power, with the criminally under-used Hirsch shining as our anti-hero and Cusack, settling into the playing-the-heavy part of his career with as much wit as he can muster.
Ivan Kavanagh has an eye for style and a clear gift for building suspense. That said, the film is sadly less than the sum of its frequently-impressive parts. If nothing else, his messy, violent, dark and sad reflection of our society proves that the Western will never grow old.
As revisionist as it might aspire to be, Never Grow Old is rife with clichés, Cusack’s philosophical villain one of the most conspicuous.
A pretty cliche western movie of bad guys overtaking a town. John Cusack with his best performance in a while. Aside from that it s a very forgettable movie.
Una western bastante obvia de tipos malos que toman un pueblo. John Cusack está muy bien, su mejor actuación en mucho tiempo. Más allá de eso es una pelicula olvidable, apenas aprobada.
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It's a grim film, and while it's predictable and devoid of surprises, it's actually a quite entertaining and well made story. Both John Cusack and Emile Hirsch deliver very good performances. The best I've seen from Hirsch since Milk and Cusack gives enough enigma and mystery to a character who evidently feels too cliché, which is quite respectable.
I will not say that I'm astonished because I'm not, but I'm grateful because among so many forgettable films I've seen in the past week, this one is an option that stands out remarkably and sincerely I think it deserves more attention.
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No good. Looked forward to it after reading reviews, but i can not see why it rated so high. Set looks ok, a bit dark, the actors seem off and out of place. It was not fun to watch at all, a town of cowards being bullied by outsiders.
Hard on the eyes, not entertaining, depressing and a waste of time.
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Production Company
Ripple World Pictures,
Iris Productions,
Iris Films,
Rézo Productions,
Metro International Entertainment,
Quickfire Films,
Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland,
Luxembourg Film Fund,
Canal+,
Cine+,
Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ),
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland,
Shelter Prod,
Taxshelter. be,
VOO
Release Date Mar 15, 2019
Duration 1 h 40 m
Rating R
Awards
Irish Film and Television Awards
• 2 Wins & 5 Nominations
Almeria Western Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
