I think up to this point I’ve done every genre of film with one notable exception, the western and with this weekends pairing I’m seeking to correct that.

First up is Cut Throats Nine.

This film caught my attention, as many films do, by being held out to be the most violent, nasty, ugly western ever made. It was suppose to be so ugly that the film was impossible to find. I originally picked it up from Video Search of Miami; however right after that I found it readily available in various bargain western compilations. Is the film the “worst” western ever made? No. It is a bleak little exercise in nihilism, but it’s not the nastiest western. It’s also a really good little film in its own right.

The plot has a sergeant, his daughter and some soldiers transporting some prisoners across country. When an attack occurs by some people looking for gold, everyone except the sergeant, his daughter and the prisoners are killed. The wagon is destroyed. They have no way of getting out of the mountains except to stick together and walk.

This is a film that is very much unlike most other westerns. Set in a mountainous area similar to the Rockies there are no deserts or plains anywhere to be found. The characters are not your typical good guys and bad guys. Everyone has a broadness to their character, though to be perfectly honest the notion of who is a good guy is very much in doubt by the time we reach the ending. Simply put, no one and nothing is as it seems at the beginning.

The film is much more complex than the typical Hollywood westerns most people are used to. This is not a film with a clear cut plot. It’s a battle for survival for everyone, but who that’s going to be or why isn’t clear at any point.

For me the fact that nothing in the film is by the numbers helped a great deal. You really can't know where any of this is going, even if the film feels filled with dread. You can't tell what form the nastiness is going to take.

Forget your Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey westerns, this is something else entirely and completely worth searching for.