Forest Whitaker plays recent parolee in New Mexico who did hard time for killing a deputy officer; he's hoping to restart his life but locks horns with Harvey Keitel as the five-times-reelected sheriff who believes Whitaker is "a loose cannon." Mild French-Belgian-Algerian-US co-production, a remake of the 1973 French-Italian version, seems to be on a well-trodden dramatic path--a battle-of-wills between the two protagonists--and yet it doesn't even follow through on this angle (it's too limp). The picture is really just an updated western with new-fangled overtures to Allah, and Keitel's badass sheriff is a character we've seen him do before on better occasions. Brenda Blethyn upstages both men as Whitaker's parole officer. ** from ****