I'm not convinced Governor Bierce (Jim Caviezel) had to have newly elected Senator Edward Johnson (Peter Fonda) murdered for opposing the railroad. Sure, Johnson might have done so in Congress, but the relentless pace of Western expansion would have trumped virtually all opposition to it. So for the sake of the story, Bierce reneged on a forty year friendship with three former partners and wound up pulling the short straw anyway.
I liked Bill Pullman in this story as the crusty character of the title, Lefty Brown. A bit of a misnomer because he did everything right handed, but who else noticed really? Pullman was so effective in the role that I swear, at one point in the film for a very brief moment, I thought he was channeling Andy Devine. He managed to prove that his ineptitude could translate into virtue by dint of fierce loyalty and a determined heart. Not only toward his murdered friend, but also the newly acquired sidekick of his own in the form of youthful gunslinger Jeremiah Perkins (Diego Josef).
However the ending of the story bothered me a bit. When Lefty offered to kick the hanging stool out from under the governor, thereby taking Laura Johnson (Kathy Baker) off the hook, it felt like he turned his back on the law himself. Hanging a man, even if he was guilty, in front of a large passel of witnesses, was bound to result in a posse to hunt down anyone, no matter how noble the intentions were. Lefty's ride into the sunset wasn't the kind of feel good ending one would have expected had the governor's actions been exposed for the crime that it was.
I liked Bill Pullman in this story as the crusty character of the title, Lefty Brown. A bit of a misnomer because he did everything right handed, but who else noticed really? Pullman was so effective in the role that I swear, at one point in the film for a very brief moment, I thought he was channeling Andy Devine. He managed to prove that his ineptitude could translate into virtue by dint of fierce loyalty and a determined heart. Not only toward his murdered friend, but also the newly acquired sidekick of his own in the form of youthful gunslinger Jeremiah Perkins (Diego Josef).
However the ending of the story bothered me a bit. When Lefty offered to kick the hanging stool out from under the governor, thereby taking Laura Johnson (Kathy Baker) off the hook, it felt like he turned his back on the law himself. Hanging a man, even if he was guilty, in front of a large passel of witnesses, was bound to result in a posse to hunt down anyone, no matter how noble the intentions were. Lefty's ride into the sunset wasn't the kind of feel good ending one would have expected had the governor's actions been exposed for the crime that it was.