THE UNHOLY TRINITY

US, 2024, 93 minutes, Colour.

Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L.Jackson, Brandon Lessard, Gianni Capaldi, Q'orianka Kilcher, David Arquette, Veronica Ferres, Ethan Peck, Katrina Bowden, Tim Daly, Beau Knapp.

Directed by Richard Gray.

A risky religious-overtoned title. However, the Trinity here is a town in Montana, 1880. (And, when we come to think of it, Americans have a penchant for naming towns and cities Corpus Christi, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara… But, even though some of the action takes place in a church in Trinity, the issues are not religious!

However, the film opens with a hanging, a preacher (David Arquette). Watching the execution are the criminal’s son, (Brandon Lessard) who is urged by his father to get revenge on his enemy. Also watching the execution, and then a broad grin at the death, is Samuel L. Jackson, calling himself St Christopher.

In fact, this is quite watchable Western. The scenery is impressive, the plot, certainly not unfamiliar, carries us along with the character developments and the twists. And, it is a surprise to find Pierce Brosnan as the local sheriff, serious, good at his job, an accurate shooter.

When the young man arrives at Trinity, he seeks out the sheriff, finds him in a church, numbers he is making a mistake, and gradually has to learn about his father, a gold robbery at the time of the Civil War, much of the story explained by his then partner, although a slave, St Christopher. One of the difficulties of seeing Samuel L.Jackson as a villain is that we have liked him in so many films that we have to make an effort to accept his villainous behaviour, and it is, and to accept his exuberant overacting and smiling!

So, where is the gold? Possibly buried under one of the buildings in the town?

We are shown the usual life in the frontier town, the gunslingers and their anger, the saloon and its manager and the gamblers, the girls upstairs and prostitution, clashes with the Native Americans, killings, vengeance posses…

And, there are some human elements, the Sheriff’s sympathetic wife, Veronica Ferrie, standing in for the sheriff when needed, but also acting as a midwife to one of the pregnant town girls, and also looking after the young daughter of another of the prostitutes.

This film could have been made at any time over the past decades but here we are with a 2020s Western – and, it has been written by Lee Zachariah, Australian screenwriter, and directed by Richard Gray, Australian director. They both have certainly absorbed the traditions and conventions of the Western.

1. The title, the touch of seeming-blasphemy? So many American cities with Christian titles, Corpus Christi, Sacramento, Los Angeles…? The American town in Montana? The Australian writer and the Australian director?
2. 1880, the Western setting, the mountain scenery, the town itself, the saloon, the upstairs rooms, the church, the streets…? Audience expectations of this kind of town? The musical score?
3. The opening, the prison, executions, the preacher and his sermon, Isaac Broadway, Henry witnessing, the father talking to his son, urging revenge? St Christopher, watching the execution and smiling? Revenge quest for the son, to track down the corrupt sheriff?
4. Henry, his age, the influence of his father, his travels in the coach, arriving in Trinity? Vengeance, seeking out the sheriff, in the church, with the gun, Gabriel Dove, the news of the sheriff dead, the confrontation with Henry, disarming him, taking him to the saloon, organising the meal?
5. The town, the story of Isaac Broadway, St Christopher intervening and helping Henry? Henry indebted to him? The revelation about the story, Isaac and St Christopher, the gold, the betrayal, St Christopher as a slave, Isaac hiding the gold, burying it in the town? The new sheriff, Saul Butler, the gold, the many buildings in the town, the confrontation with the Native Americans, the sheriff killing Running Club’s parents, her killing him? On the run? Gabriel Dave and his support of Running Club? The members of the town wanting vengeance on her?
6. Gabriel Dove, from Ireland, sheriff, deputies, the unrest in the town especially towards Running Club, posses chasing her?
7. The saloon, Sam behind the bar, the prostitutes upstairs, the pregnant woman, Julia and the customers, flirtatious, with Henry, taking her to the room, the jealous man, the gun, the confrontation with Henry, the shooting of Julia, the shooting of the attacker, his falling out the window?
8. The men in the town wanting vengeance?
9. Sarah, her relationship with Gabriel, looking after the little girl, daughter of Julia, the pregnant woman and her giving birth?
10. St Christopher, Samuel L.Jackson and the back story, his smile, vengeance, charm, brutality, witnessing Isaac’s execution, helping Henry, wanting to find the gold, going to the house, his menacing Sarah, age of the church, digging for the gold, the confrontation and his death?
11. The killings in the town, the sheriff away with Running Club, Sarah taking charge, the aftermath, St Christopher telling the posse where Running Clubs was, the pursuit, the shootout, the father and his son, the death of his son, grief inventions, the shootouts, the skill of the sheriff? Running Clubs and her shooting?
12. The aftermath, Running Club safe, Sarah and the sheriff looking after the little girl, the future?