Nicolas Cage is an actor known for his wild and varied career. His time as a performer has seen him effortlessly traverse award-winning dramas and high-octane action films, high-art independents, and weird and wackiness. Cage has worked in almost every genre going and no matter what he chooses, his fans come flocking. In his bid to be the first actor to claim a monopoly on all genres of film, his latest project, The Old Way, sees him finally star in a Western.
One could argue that Cage has played in the Western world before; Prisoners of the Ghostland for example, shares a lot of traits, but The Old Way marks his first traditional outing. The action begins in a small Western town. This West is still Wild, and Cage’s character, Briggs, is a remorseless outlaw. Briggs breezes into town, dispatches several men, leaving one boy orphaned. It’s a fairly standard opening for a Western and one that asserts Cage as a villain. However, writer Carl W. Lucas and director Brett Donowho have other intentions.
The story jumps forward twenty years. Here Briggs is reintroduced, and he is a shadow of the man from the opening. He is in civilian dress and lives on the outskirts of town with his wife, Ruth (Kerry Knuppe), and daughter, Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). The owner of a local store, Briggs’ life is now a mundane, but peaceful existence. After being tasked with taking Brooke to school, Briggs begins a path that shatters his new life. Whilst out, a group of outlaws visit Ruth, one of whom shares a dark past with Briggs. Realising the connection, the leader of the group, James (Noah Le Gros), seeks vengeance. His actions unleash the beast lying dormant in Briggs and, accompanied by Brooke, Briggs sets out to eradicate James and his gang.
The plot is a standard Western narrative and The Old Way hits many of the expected notes. More interesting aspects of the story include the time period itself. While the opening is set in the Wild West era, the main story unfolds as a new way of living has begun. Like Briggs himself, society has cast aside the old chaotic way of life in favour of a more peaceful balance. James and his men have yet to catch up and are being pursued by Marshalls as well as Briggs. This leads to some compelling interactions between Briggs and the head Marshall, who implores Briggs to not return to the old ways.
Another interesting facet revolves around the character of Brooke. A young child paired with a renegade is a common trope in Westerns, but the handling here feels different. The primary reason for this is the inclusion of a fairly modern angle on Brooke’s character. She doesn’t interact with the world in the same way as her peers. Early on she is tasked with cleaning jelly beans, wherein she not only polishes them all nicely, but separates the colours into individual jars. Later, the emotional impact of her situation does not land as one would expect. The inclusion of these characteristics bring the piece up to date whilst communicating that it isn’t a new phenomena to have suddenly arisen.
As ever, Cage commits wholeheartedly to his role. The actor is known for his over-the-top, loud, brash and exaggerated performances, as well as his quieter and more subdued character portrayals. Briggs aligns with the latter, Cage calm and quiet, Briggs sharing some of Brooke’s social and emotional disconnections. With their emotions firmly in check, Briggs and Brooke aren’t the typical revenge Western characters to journey with, but Cage’s muted performance is as captivating as ever. The more maniacal acting is left to Noah Le Gros and his clan of men, who include Abraham Benrubi and Shiloh Fernandez. These are the characters that audiences are more used to seeing in this setting, and their inclusion balances out the newer ideas being filtered in.
Although The Old Way inserts some more modern ideas, they don’t all work in the way intended. The character of Ruth for example is quite headstrong and forward for a woman of that time period. She clearly rules many aspects of the homestead, Briggs happy to follow her lead. Her attitude to interacting with men extends to her exchanges with James. Whilst it makes for more palatable viewing seeing a female character not become immediately hysterical and the damsel in distress, it doesn’t fully gel with the story setting. Were The Old Way to push from tradition heavier across multiple areas then this character demeanour would be more cohesive.
The war between creating a traditional Western story and the desire to infuse some more modern character aspects balances itself out. The Old Way ends up somewhere in the middle of the two directions, mellowed to the point of becoming purely perfunctory. The lack of clear emotion from Briggs and Brooke causes a further disconnect for the audience and there is not the full investment that there should be, and the payoff plays out with more of a whimper than an emotional punch. A solid Western, The Old Way ultimately works, but is lacking that extra spark to make it something special.
The Old Way is in cinemas and available on Altitude.film and other digital platforms from 13th January 2023.
The Old Way
Summary
Nicolas Cage’s first steps into ‘traditional’ Westerns is a fine, if not well-trodden, story. The actor, as always, brings his A-game, and the narrative has some interesting modern aspects, but ultimately The Old Way ends up feeling a little too typical to break out of its box.
