Once again, my seeing this movie was predicated on Virginia Madsen's appearance in it; and when I noticed her character, Penny Tillman, being killed off in the first few minutes, I was tempted to walk away.
However, rather than this being another waste of her talent, which has seemed to be happening a lot lately, it turned out to be one of her more powerful performances.
We watch her character age from her teens to early middle-age, I would assume because of her having a teen-aged daughter, only to be gunned down in a random act of violence just as she is reconnecting with her estranged father.
Certainly a profound tragedy to any family when such a person is lost.
From my reading of the Tillman family, these are proud, but loving people in their own way, and big, gruff Martin Tillman would seem to be the most loving of all.
Traumatized by his experiences in WWII already, he now has the added burden of dealing with his daughter's death, which he decides to handle in his own way.
After gaining possession the gun that killed Penny, he tracks down its past owners, one by one, leading up to the murder; a plot device I have seen used before in a similar movie about 30 years ago.
At the same time, he must face his teenaged granddaughter, who must be told about her mother's death.
Leading up to the end, there are some strange plot twists in the film that are not clear, which I cannot reveal without ruining the ending for you, so it will not be mentioned further here.
While the resulting presentation makes a strong case about guns in our society, it is not really so much an anti-gun film, but really more about accepting responsibility for one's actions, and trying afterwards to cope with life as best we can and move on.
This Martin does, but not without a profound sadness, which you will understand at the end.
It was unfortunate that in his final screen appearance before his death, that James Coburn did not receive more notice for his powerful, heart-felt performance, which certainly deserved an Oscar nomination or some other award.
As for the movie itself it did receive far too little attention in the theater; though it can be easily found on video.
Finally, I must say that Virginia Madsen once again gives another great performance that has been ignored, and in light of her success in the 2004 movie "Sideways", deserves to be seen to show the further development of a great screen talent.
For more than a few reasons, definitely seek this one out.
However, rather than this being another waste of her talent, which has seemed to be happening a lot lately, it turned out to be one of her more powerful performances.
We watch her character age from her teens to early middle-age, I would assume because of her having a teen-aged daughter, only to be gunned down in a random act of violence just as she is reconnecting with her estranged father.
Certainly a profound tragedy to any family when such a person is lost.
From my reading of the Tillman family, these are proud, but loving people in their own way, and big, gruff Martin Tillman would seem to be the most loving of all.
Traumatized by his experiences in WWII already, he now has the added burden of dealing with his daughter's death, which he decides to handle in his own way.
After gaining possession the gun that killed Penny, he tracks down its past owners, one by one, leading up to the murder; a plot device I have seen used before in a similar movie about 30 years ago.
At the same time, he must face his teenaged granddaughter, who must be told about her mother's death.
Leading up to the end, there are some strange plot twists in the film that are not clear, which I cannot reveal without ruining the ending for you, so it will not be mentioned further here.
While the resulting presentation makes a strong case about guns in our society, it is not really so much an anti-gun film, but really more about accepting responsibility for one's actions, and trying afterwards to cope with life as best we can and move on.
This Martin does, but not without a profound sadness, which you will understand at the end.
It was unfortunate that in his final screen appearance before his death, that James Coburn did not receive more notice for his powerful, heart-felt performance, which certainly deserved an Oscar nomination or some other award.
As for the movie itself it did receive far too little attention in the theater; though it can be easily found on video.
Finally, I must say that Virginia Madsen once again gives another great performance that has been ignored, and in light of her success in the 2004 movie "Sideways", deserves to be seen to show the further development of a great screen talent.
For more than a few reasons, definitely seek this one out.