Rust

Wyoming in the eighteen eighties. Thirteen year old Lucas is living alone with his brother; their parents are dead and the farm is going. There is an accident: the boy shoots a neighbour and the court sentences him to hang. He is put in jail. Then a man he has never met comes and takes him out; the man is his grandfather and an outlaw who has been wanted for years. The two set out for the border with a bounty hunter behind them. Joel Souza directs and wrote the screenplay with Alec Baldwin, who takes the lead. A death occurred during the production. In October 2021, during a rehearsal, a live round fired from a gun being held killed the cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded the director Souza. Weapon safety on sets had been argued about for years, and this led to the rules in the industry being reworked; it also became the subject of a long legal process. The production stopped for a time and was later completed under an agreement reached with Hutchins's family; her husband joined the producers and the film is dedicated to her memory. Bianca Cline took over the photography after the material Hutchins had shot. The narrative is a classic western: an escape, a journey to the border and a bond between two generations. It does not step outside the genre. It was released in 2025. Who it is for: viewers who follow classically told westerns. Who it is not for: the narrative is predictable, the pace is slow, and for most viewers it is not possible to watch the film apart from what happened behind it.