Westender

Description

Set in a fictitious medieval world, this Odyssey of one man's personal redemption is an entertaining and thought-provoking tale rife with swordplay, humor, intrigue, and fantasy. Blake Stadel stars as a legendary knight who has mysteriously fallen from grace.

DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes
Featurette:The Creation of Westender featurette
Theatrical Trailer

Customer Reviews:

neither as good nor as bad as reviewed here ..........2007-09-01

I picked this movie up secondhand. I'm not quite sure I agree with any of the reviewers who gave it 1 or 5 stars. Rather than go into depth, I'll talk about what the movie does well, and what it does not do well.
What is done well:
1. the music. Evocative score that far outdistances the movie.
2. use of Oregon's diverse natural scenery. In fact, this movie should be a travel commercial for hiking through Oregon.
3. Subtlety. There is a lot of personal struggle here, and it is very nicely woven into the script.
What is not done well:
1. dialogue. the dialogue tends to be trite and, for lack of a better word, cheesy. (That's "corny" to anyone younger than Gen X). The dialogue is either way too earnest (falls on its face trying too hard) or does not take itself seriously. Either way, the dialogue adds little to, and detracts much from, the story. The best parts of the movie have no lines!
2. editing. Some of the scenes need to be shortened. Some reviewers claim this entire movie is about walking. While it isn't that bad, there needed to be another round of editing.
3. the acting. Aside from Blake Stadel, few of the cast actually stand out. The jester is an exception: he stands out because he is glaringly bad. Hampered by the worst lines in the film, this character fails to convince. The gypsy woman (played, I think, by Darlene Dadras) is a character that needed a little more screen time--she managed to stand out in spite of her bad lines.

This movie seems to have garnered more than its share of attention, considering its budget and some of its glaring flaws. There is something about the way Westender is put together that grabs hold of an archetypal struggle. It was much easier than I expected to identify with the protagonist.

A look at the film website's project page reveals the goals of the team behind the film. They wanted a story about an inner oddysey that had "mainstream" sensibilities (read: appears to be a plot-driven narrative). Westender suffers from trying to be too many things at once. I wanted more of what was good about this movie, because what was there was seriously hampered by its flaws. I hope that MOB productions learns from its first time out: focus on your strengths.

I will watch this movie several more times because there is truth in the archetypal themes of Asbrey's struggle. But this will not be a fully enjoyable experience for me, as the weaknesses I mentioned above are glaring enough to detract from the story.

In short, this is a good film that only occasionally breaks free from its bad points.

A good idea.......2007-02-03

The concept was great it was the movie itself. It felt like a d- listed Gladiator.

Worth a chance.......2006-09-25

This is a mediocre film, and whilst not being an epic is certainly thought provoking. Considering this movie is not made by a huge film studio it is a worthy attempt at making a film. There are some flaws to the movie as mentioned in a few other reviews. The amount of film time just concentrated on the main character walking was a waste of movie time. It certainly begs the question what's wrong with riding horses. Also you see that Asbrey the main character has some deep seated issues but the film does not really explore those. Thus it is hard to relate to this character. The film also makes reference to Asbrey losing his lifes love but again it is so vague you don't really know what happened. Really the main draw to this film is seeing this man wrestle with his own personal ghosts but sadly this is just not explored enough and you are left needing an explanation. Some scenes are slightly odd and this is because the plot is just not developed well enough. Some decent fighting scenes are in this movie as well as some reasonable acting by some unknowns. Certainly i would not watch this movie over and over again but i feel it is worth a look.

Decent English knight movie not as bad as reviewed here.......2006-09-17

Okay this is not 'Excalibur' but it's a decent movie, and not as bad as the reviews here imply. I have watched Westender twice now and enjoyed it more on the second viewing. That's a rare occurrence. About the walking, it is a "journey" movie and walking or horseback was the only option in UK knight days. Sure, for storytelling purposes, I would have thrown in a horse ride for good measure somewhere along the line. But the walking scenes in this movie are actually shorter in length than the walking scenes in the 'Good, Bad & the Ugly'. Okay, I know it's apples to oranges, but you get the point. As a video editor myself, I would have cut out about sixty seconds of the walking scenes, true. But otherwise it holds together pretty well, and is beautifully photographed. Most people can identify with the theme of life as trial, because life is a pretty g.d. dismal trial after all, if people were honest about it. Some come out with a more intact karma on the other side than others (or so I have heard ie I don't think George W. Bush would stand a chance against this guy) even if nobody gets out alive. It all depends on how you look at it. To me that is what the movie was all about, and I liked it. Maybe I read too much into it, but I liked it, so gave it 4 stars.

best viewed on fast forward.......2005-11-14

Well if you have every played a Larp or been in the SCA you are in for a shock. The costuming in our fantasy games are ten times better than the costuming here in westender. Also You tend to see that the world of westender is full of peril. But that is par for the course when your battles are faught with no armour and swords.

The acting is along the lines of Xena series one, but the script is paper thin. So it does not matter how good the acting is, their just isn't much to work with.

The photography is beaytiful, bet everything else is slow.

Rent or get it off of ebay for $5.00 other wise you'll be sorry.

DVD:

DVD

DVD