Rust: Alec Baldwin's 'ghoulish' western haunted by real-life death

In normal circumstances, the release to streaming platforms in the US of this "dour, overlong" western would have gone largely unmentioned, said Adam White in The Independent.

Its star Alec Baldwin is a big name actor, but he has spent "much of the last decade in a straight-to-streaming stupor", headlining films with titles such as "Kid Santa" and "Chick Fight". Rust would likely have joined that roster of forgettable "content" had it not been for the tragedy that occurred on its set in 2021, when Baldwin accidentally discharged a live bullet from a prop gun that he was handling, killing the film's cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding its director, Joel Souza.

The film's armourer is now in prison; and Souza has "expressed regret about setting the film in motion". He only completed it because Hutchins's family wanted him to.

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Pretty formulaic

Set in 19th century Montana, it follows Lucas, an orphaned 13-year-old boy (Patrick Scott McDermott) who is sentenced to death for killing his employer, then sprung from jail by his long-lost grandfather, the "gruff" outlaw Rust (Baldwin).

Together, they flee town on horseback, pursued by an indistinguishable band of lawmen, bounty hunters and "scofflaws", said Jesse Hassenger in The Guardian. It's all pretty formulaic: Rust and Lucas are an uneasy pair at first, but of course bond over the course of the "protracted pursuit" that ensues.

'Gorgeous' cinematography

Baldwin isn't "enigmatic or dangerous enough to carry the film", and the sight of him taking part in the film's "obligatory" gunfight climax "makes Rust feel ghoulish, in addition to dull" and overlong.

The film's only saving grace is Hutchins's "gorgeous" cinematography, which contains clever visual nods to "The Searchers" and other classics of the genre.