Is this supposed to be a comedy? Why hundreds of blunders in this movie?

"After Brosnan killed that Joe guy (by dropping a knife from a tree which in real life wouldn't go through his skull like that, why are the laws of physics different in this movie?)"

If an object is heavy enough and sharp enough and travelling with enough velocity it would puncture a skull.

"And when Brosnan broke out of that tent by cutting the rope with that big knife, why did his captors tie him up and let him even have a knife? Captors don't let you have a knife when they tie you up!"

He gets the knife from a guard by calling him Paddy Boy and then kicking him in the crotch and head before retrieving his knife

"And at the end, why did that lady from the carriage know that they each needed a bullet? And how did the guy at the water pond know that that black horse was Neelson's?"

Because she was the devil!

"And how did the guy at the water pond know that that black horse was Neelson's?"

He was another supernatural character called Mr Charon - who in mythology is the Ferryman for the dead.

"And after Neelson repeatedly betrayed and murdered his own men, wouldn't the rest of them desert him early on, seeing as how he could not even be trusted?"

He didn't betray or murder any of his many - 2 were killed by Pierce Brosnan, one betrayed him so Liam Neeson shot his horse and the other threatened him.

Your final comments are about the psychology of the film - I take it that they are both dead by this point. So they are in Hell or maybe Purgatory and this is a chance to ascertain where they end up in the afterlife

"Why didn't anyone else point all these obvious blunders out?"

Probably for the same reason that no-one has pointed out that it's Liam Neeson not Neelson to you :0)

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I too had problems w/ plot. This was a fascinating & engrossing Western, but had 2 critical plot-problems - problems such that .. the wheels came off the plot & the story thusly, annoyed me as it continued to unfold. One was, right near the beginning where Gideon as a UnionArmy captain arrives w/ a troop of cavalry @ Carver's farm. We're told by the characters that the war is over - has been for months. So what was Gideon up to then? What did I miss that explained the attack on Carver & the tragedy that ensued? And two, when Gideon escaped from the railway-camp - how, of all the possible routes & trails & tracks that would have led away from the camp - how did Carver & Hayes proceed on the correct one that Gideon was leaving? They didn't see him leave. And they were by-that-time, very unwelcome @ the camp to be asking questions of camp-people or snooping-around the locale eliminating false-tracks. These two plot-points made me say - `hey wait a-minute'!

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Yeah that really got me too. That bit where he sees them coming, lights a fire and watches from the woods. I had assumed he had set a trap of some sort, when that didn't turn out to be the case I said WTF! It didn't make any damned sense!
Also when they left the rail camp they came to the camp of the religious freaks that Brosnan past before he came to the rail camp.

To "samson k" cheap shot on the OP's spelling. If your so bright why didn't YOU answer the question about the fire. And check your underwear... it smells funny....

The biology of purpose keeps my nose above the surface (ooh)

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After Brosnan killed that Joe guy (by dropping a knife from a tree which in real life wouldn't go through his skull like that, why are the laws of physics different in this movie?) he takes his horse and goes up a snowy mountain.

No, he doesn't. He never gets a hold of Pope's horse. They even show Pope's horse after that scene riding with the posse.


Why did he do that? Why would he make a fire so they could find him?

Because Gideon couldn't outrun them so he set up what he hoped would be a trap.

Then Liam Neelson points a rifle at him at night, but how can he spot him in the pitch black of night? Huh?

I spotted people in maneuvers at night time many, many times in the Marines. You keep an eye closed when light is out so you can keep your pupil dilated from the darkness.

Try to think a little more like the warriors that Brosnan and Neeson portray and these things become pretty clear.

Later on, when he hides out in that house in the snow, it shows Neelson and his party looking at the house, yet they don't get to it until tomorrow morning? Huh? Why didn't they just break into it that same afternoon that they saw it while he was still there?

No, it shows Brosnan looking at the house. It shows Neeson and company being thrown off by a false trail that Gideon creates, thus providing a time advantage.

Fear is the Mind Killer

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Just not very intelligent but stupid complaints. If the complaint had been about other more egregious things, they would have been better.

After Brosnan killed that Joe guy (by dropping a knife from a tree which in real life wouldn't go through his skull like that, why are the laws of physics different in this movie?) he takes his horse and goes up a snowy mountain. Then when he sees his pursuers coming, he builds a campfire so that they will see him...*snip* Why did he do that? Why would he make a fire so they could find him?

Like Hotwyre said, no horse, he left it. He build a campfire because if he doesn't after falling into the icy water, in that climate, he would have died, slowly.

then he leaves his horse there while he stares at them from behind a tree all night.

Scouting, getting a good look at his pursuers? Waiting for them to sleep so he can cut their throats silently at night? Do you have any concept of recon, stealth, and assassination? Or have you seen 3:10 to Yuma?

And why would he leave his horse behind and walk on foot instead?

He didn't get his horse when they shot at him because then he might as well have painted a bull's eye on himself. When people are shooting at you do you run away or run toward an obvious object (without cover no less) which people know you'd be going for?

Then Liam Neelson points a rifle at him at night, but how can he spot him in the pitch black of night? Huh?

Like Hotwyre said. Plus, Carver was probably patrolling, and one can clearly see a shadowy figure at night, who is obscuring the light of the campfire. Gideon was standing in the dark with a line of sight to the fire, Carver was standing behind him, also in line of sight to the fire. One obscured light, one saw. Simple as that.

And when Brosnan broke out of that tent by cutting the rope with that big knife, why did his captors tie him up and let him even have a knife? Captors don't let you have a knife when they tie you up!

Maybe you should have paid better attention. His captor did take his knife, and then he dropped it when Gideon kicked him in the gonads. Gideon brought the knife closer to him with his foot.

And at the end, why did that lady from the carriage know that they each needed a bullet? And how did the guy at the water pond know that that black horse was Neelson's?

Demon/Satan and angel/God? The fact that Madame Luise didn't make a sound with her carriage didn't strike you as supernatural? Is there some law of physics to permit that but not the knife falling and killing a man?

And after Neelson repeatedly betrayed and murdered his own men, wouldn't the rest of them desert him early on, seeing as how he could not even be trusted?

He didn't murder anyone. The kid was dying (they don't have modern medicine to heal/cure you from what the kid took to his chest), he put him out of his misery (otherwise the kid would have died slowly as well). The horse that he shot was his. The guy with another guy on him couldn't pull a gun on him because Carver already had one out. The other guy was too greedy to care.

warning: spoilers! (how do you cover the text below in red?)

The same way you do in other more robust and not as badly designed forums. But I don't know how because I never use that function.

At the end, when Neelson finally reaches up to him with a gun in his hand pointed at him, why does he fail to shoot him, and instead let himself be shot? If he wanted revenge all this time, why didn't he finally shoot him?

Clearly he was about to line up a shot and take his sweet time for revenge when Gideon got the better of him by pulling a fast one. Plus he might have known about Gideon's lack of bullets and not his trade with Madame Luise.

And after Liam Neelson was shot and on the ground, how did he get up again to walk? No way! He was also given the chance to blow off Brosnan's face, but he doesn't again! Brosnan killed his family and so he should have.

This was the only good question.

And while they walk in the desert, they just disappear? Why no ending?

My impression was that the movie fast forwarded in time. You never seen that in another movie (or just TV), where the person (or people) faded out as time passed on?

Finally, during the whole movie Neelson is always able to follow Brosnan, even when there are no tracks such as when they left the snowy area! There's no way that he can always know which direction he went like that. How could he be that psychic? That's ridiculous!

He obviously had a tracker (who could tell the number of bank robbers, and which way they went). And there are always tracks in snow. Gideon wasn't shown to erase all of it. It probably just took longer for them to pick up his track again (again, something shown in other movies). They were probably just very lucky in guessing the direction he went (like all movies), or by educated guess. Back in the days they didn't have taxis or buses, and you couldn't survive as long on your own in snow-covered mountains or the desert. It'd be a pretty good guess that a lone person without survival necessities would be heading toward a populated area like a city or a town.

There are hundreds of blunders and things that don't make sense in this movie, some of which are obvious. Was this meant to be a comedy? I don't get it.

It would have been more intelligent if you had pointed out that the movie used unlikely props (though not so unlikely) instead criticizing so many things that could be explained away. Your best criticisms were about dropping the knife, Carver not taking revenge, and his getting up like all heroes in movies who can withstand bullet wounds like mosquito bite.

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