BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

NateWatchesCoolMovies The Jack Bull shouldn't have been a TV movie, plain and simple. It's story is too important and we'll told to be shunted into an HBO slot and denied a theatrical release, effectively dooming it to the doldrums of obscurity. There's a few DVD's floating around in the ether, and no doubt it shows up on cable now and again, which is nice. It's one of the most tragic westerns I've seen, and needlessly so, which makes it all the more sad. John Cusack plays Myrl Redding, a humble rancher and family man who is just trying to make a life for himself on the frontier, along with his wife Cora (luminous Miranda Otto). When he strikes a deal with filthy rich local cattle baron Henry Ballard (L.Q. Jones) it becomes clear the man is rotten to the core. The horses left in his care are brutally mistreated by Ballard's lead hand Slater (a savage John Savage), prompting Redding to seek justice. When the law and courts and even the glad handing Governor (Scott Wilson) refuse to give him retribution at the behest of Ballard's slimy financial influence, he takes the matter into his own hands, which ultimately means he now had committed a crime, with witnesses. Ballard seizes the opportunity and uses every ounce of malice as well as his money to bury Redding. The law does nothing to help. The only person that Redding has in his corner is idealistic Judge Tolliver, played by a beaming John Goodman who steals the show and balances out the gloominess with his comforting presence. He's a take no nonsense guy and the only character besides Cusack that has any shred or morals or decency. There's also work from mottled character actors like Rex Linn, Rodney A. Grant, Ned Bellamy, Jay O. Sanders, Brent Briscoe and John C. McGinley. It's not your typical western, being very downbeat and tragic, but not in an unnecessary way. It has a point to make and a message to give about sticking to your principles, standing up to bullies no matter how dear the cost, and not backing down. Excellent film.

MBunge Many modern Westerns take a whack at demythologizing the frontier, but I don't know of any other film that does it as powerfully and thoroughly as The Jack Bull. All the old, familiar themes are here, stripped of their pretense and given new and exciting life in a challenging tale that becomes more morally and ethically complex as it goes along.In the waning days of the Wyoming Territory, a horse trader named Myrl Redding (John Cusack) gets into a dispute with a land baron named Henry Ballard (L. Q. Jones) over two stallions. Myrl left them with Ballard as collateral for a toll to pass through Ballard's land on way to a horse auction. When Myrl returns for them, he finds his man left to mind the horses beaten and run off and the animals whipped, mistreated and worked near to death. Myrl demands the stallions be restored to the previous condition by Ballard's own hand, something the rich man sneeringly refuses.Myrl takes his case to the local judge (Ken Pogue), only to find him in Ballard's pocket. He tries to petition the territorial Attorney General, only to have that request end in tragedy. Unwilling to let the wrong done him go unanswered, Myrl gathers together a gang of men and rides up to Ballard's spread to get justice for himself. Ballard escapes, however, leaving Myrl to lead his men across the countryside, threatening to burn out anyone who gives aid or shelter to Ballard. This little insurrection eventually brings the conflict between Myrl and Ballard to the attention of the territorial governor (Scott Wilson), but not until people are killed and someone has to be help accountable for those deaths.Myrl Redding deserves to stand alongside Tom Doniphon and Liberty Valance in the pantheon of Wild West cinema. All three symbolize how the sort of men who made the frontier the glorious place it was, were also the sort of men who would have no place as the frontier gave way to civilization. Make no mistake, Henry Ballard is the bad guy in this story and Redding is the good guy. But most of Ballard's actions are legal and only slightly unethical. The crimes he does commit are of a petty nature. The awful events of The Jack Bull flow not from the greed or arrogance of Henry Ballard, but from the uncompromising pride and independence of Myrl Redding. Ballard makes only a little spark. It is Myrl who pours gasoline on that spark until it becomes a deadly fire.Taking the law into your own hand when you're denied justice is one of the oldest Western stories. The Jack Bull is one of the few that recognizes when you take the law into your own hands, it's like setting yourself alone in a boat across the ocean. You have nothing but your wits and your will to deal with all the forces that come against you and decisions and actions that seem right can have disastrous consequences. A corrupt justice system fails Myrl Redding, but no justice system can withstand men who pursue their own righteous satisfaction to the exclusion of all else.In addition to being smart and compelling, The Jack Bull has a marvelous cast. Strong performances abound, particularly Scott Wilson and John Goodman as another territorial judge who is committed to seeing justice done to its fullest extent. John Cusack is tremendously effective, never letting what Myrl Redding represents overwhelm the character's simply humanity. And Director John Badham does an excellent job at capturing the extremes which lived side by side in the dying days of the Wild West.The Jack Bull is an outstanding movie and is a must see of the modern Western.

robb_mavins WATCH IT. A great moral translated to a western tale. I have been a fan of Cusack for some time; my first impression was that in a Western he would not be strong enough. As Myrl Redding, the strong true and moral man pushed too far, he is driven and tortured by theft and the death of his wife; and he is wonderful.The great thing about this movie is that L.Q. Jones' Ballard is not evil just the antagonist. This movie is filled with good people trying to do what they feel is the right thing including John Goodman as Judge Toliver. <br> The best compliment I can give is that it reminds a lot of `The Crucible' by Arthur Miller, though to be honest, I am never sure who is on the side of right . Since the movie is also set against the statehood debate there are so many subplots. Both Redding & Ballard are pushed and pulled by so many other forces, I am never quite sure to whom is delivered `More Weight' as was Giles Corey in the Crucible but the result is very watchable. That's why in the final analysis I like this film, it is not about `white hats' and black hats just sadly about flawed people.

binnielula ****SPOILERS**** I have not read the novel on which this movie is based, but it is not necessary to do so in order to enjoy the film. Although maybe "enjoy" isn't the best word, given that the film deals with assaults on horse- and humankind, assaults that are both physical and figurative. This is not a feel good movie. It is, however, a truly fine film.The framework of the movie is familiar: Rich, greedy and cruel landowner wants to own everything in sight. Comes into conflict with Our Hero, a righteous horse trader, who loses almost everything, but triumphs in the end. Yes, he does, Virginia, but in this film that triumph comes at a terrible price, some of which even he is unaware of (the massacre of the Indians). The film depicts Wyoming, whose harsh beauty is kinder than the brutality, in the days preceeding statehood, of an essentially lawless society. The figure that should provide justice--a corrupt judge in the pocket of the movie's villain--merely makes a mockery of it.The plot has been summarized frequently in viewers' comments so I won't do it again. The filmmakers (writer Dick Cusack, director John Badham, producer John Cusack, among others) have taken a hackneyed plot and turned it into something much better. They give us a protagonist, protrayed by the younger Cusack, who is far from perfect. In fact, one of his greatest virtues, a deep and abiding integrity, may (Note, I say MAY)also be his greatest defect, since a number of relative innocents are sacrificed for its sake. But ultimately only Myrl Redding, Cusack's character, takes responsibility for the pain and loss that have resulted from his quest, and yet he still repeats that he couldn't have done things any differently. He refuses to escape the justice dealt out to him, because, after all, it was only justice that he was after all along.Cusack's characters are often eccentric and on the fringe; here he gives us a subtle portrayal of a man whose only eccentricity is the strength of his principles. Myrl Redding cares more about the dignity of life, whether that life is a horse's, an Indian's, his own, or even his enemy's, than he does about actually continuing to live. Although he has a profound respect for life and has no desire to throw it away, ultimately he believes that living isn't worth much if you have to sacrifice your dignity to do so. This respected member of the community, who sees the dignity of his animals and his ranch hand horrifically abused, first applies for redress through the legal system. He finds that, in his part of the Wyoming territory at least, justice is as abused an animal as his horses. Deprived of legal justice, he articulates his own law (which later in the film he tells an honest judge was the only law available to him and not one that he created) In doing so he commits acts that are arguably unjust themselves. And he understands his choices, which lead to his own death. Nevertheless he triumphs, because he has shown the community and, most importantly, his son, that principle is important, sometimes more important than life, and that sometimes it is necessary to make hard choices that have no obvious rewards at all, that may, in fact, render consequences that are cruel and ugly.Cusack is, as always, wonderful. His performance is understated and eloquent; Myrl Redding is not John Wayne, but he is a manly man who understands the worth--and the cost--of his own integrity. L. Q. Jones, who has surely played more cowboy villains than even he can count, is also very good. And though Henry Ballard seems thoroughly despicable, the script offers a peek into some of what might have made him that way (he tells Myrl that he has a wife and two sons buried on his land). John Goodman projects honor and authority as powerfully as he does menace and lunacy (I'm thinking primarily of his roles for the Cohn Brothers here). And before she was Eowyn, Miranda Otto's Cora gave us a glimpse of how was truly luminous she can be.My only quibbles are with a few details that I don't find convincing: Others have mentioned the unlikelihood of Ballard having a black as one of his trusted goons (and fellow poker players). I also find it highly unlikely that so many cowpokes and Indians could read and write with so little difficulty.