The Ballad of Lefty Brown

Aging sidekick Lefty Brown has ridden with Eddie Johnson his entire life. But when a rustler kills Eddie, Lefty is forced from his partner’s shadow and must confront the ugly realities of frontier justice.

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Reviews

  • ★★★½ review by Tyler Jacob on Letterboxd

    Hell of a character piece assembled here, an endearing and melancholic examination of what it means to be a sidekick boasting spectacular work from Bill Pullman and 35mm cinematography to die for. The whodunnit gets a bit convoluted and the villain is such an afterthought, but as a vehicle for Pullman's underrated talent and exploration of a classic facet of the American western, you can't do much better.

  • ★★★½ review by Hellasguy315 on Letterboxd

    An unabashed Western fan I am. Nice entry into the genre and love the decision to shoot on 35mm! Looks wonderful!

  • ★★★½ review by Banjostring on Letterboxd

    A decent modern western with some solid performances and plot that keeps your interest the whole way through. Can we have more modern westerns please? Thanks.

  • ★★★★ review by Waldo on Letterboxd

    Fonda is a lawman soon to hold office as a Senator. His faithful partner is Lefty Brown. He limps, not too bright and always been a follower. Tragedy strikes and he'll be pushed violently towards being a leader. This is Bill Pullman's best performance ever. The action is fierce, the script and direction fresh and Bill is unforgettable.

  • ★★★★ review by Seamonsterneil on Letterboxd

    I liked this a lot. As I was reading through a bunch of other reviews I noticed a lack of people pointing out how much heart this movie had. Most revenge westerns have the heroes riding into town and heartlessly blowing everyone away, but here we have maybe one of Bill Pullman's finest performances as the dishevelled Lefty Brown, interested in doing what is right with an unwavering loyalty to the people he cares for. As a character that's initially presented as dim-witted, it's clear that he understands the world around him a lot better than anyone else thinks he does.

    While I think it does fall into some genre cliché's towards the end, it isn't often that you see the effects on the heroes, even in a movie like Unforgiven Clint gets to go badass in the finale. You're never going to see William Munny cry over someone he has lost, but Pullman manages to pull off something that's far more human and heroic despite him being this incredibly flawed old man.

    Beautifully paced, well scored and what I'd deem to be an unfairly overlooked performance in a film that I found to be far better than a lot of the lukewarm reviews suggested.

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