Susan Granger’s review of “Rust” (Prime Video/Apple TV)
Nearly four years after Alex Baldwin’s prop Colt .45 – inadvertently loaded with ‘live’ ammunition – killed 42 year-old Ukrainian cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza, their movie “Rust” is now streaming.
Instead of consigning the film to the scrap-heap where it belongs, vultures are circling as profiteers from a senseless tragedy that never should have happened. More about that later.
Set in Wyoming, 1882, the gunfire-filled, low-budget Western revolves around Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott), a 13 year-old orphan, sentenced to hang for an accidental shooting and saved by his outlaw grandfather, Harlan Rust (Baldwin). Together, these fugitives head for Mexico, doggedly pursued by ruthless bounty hunters.
Underwritten by director Joel Souza from Alec Baldwin’s story, it’s inept, at best, never resolving its 19th century law/justice/religion narrative themes. While there are some visually compelling landscape scenes, most interior shots are dark and murky with heavy use of silhouette. Although Bianca Cline operated the camera after Hutchins’ death, it’s impossible to differentiate their cinematography.
Now about ‘live’ ammunition on the set at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2021. Although an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin was dismissed – based on police/prosecutors withholding evidence from the defense – he was also a producer on the film and – as such – responsible for on-set conduct and hiring a young, inexperienced armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was sentenced to 18-months in prison.
My father (S. Sylvan Simon), adoptive father (Armand Deutsch), brother (Stephen Simon) and son (Don Granger) were/are producers so I am familiar with that role’s responsibility. There is NO excuse for ‘live’ ammunition on a film set. None!
So who profits from “Rust”? In 2022, Halyna’s widower Matthew settled a wrongful death lawsuit with the film’s producers, who were protected by an LLC listing only one thing of value: the movie. That resulted in his billing as one of the executive producers, and their son Andros will receive profits from the film. But inevitably, ‘creative’ bookkeeping will determine how much that is.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Rust” is a tragedy-riddled 2, streaming on Prime Video, Apple TV and other video-on-demand platforms.
