The Old Way (2023)

What can I say? I like Nicolas Cage movies. They’re not always great or even good, but they’re usually interesting. THE OLD WAY is his first Western. He plays a ruthless, deadly hired gun who puts all that behind him, settles down, runs a store, marries, and has a daughter. With a set-up like that, what do you think is going to happen? Maybe some threat from his past is going to reappear with tragic consequences and force him to strap on his guns again? Admit it, you’d be disappointed if that didn’t happen. I certainly would have been.

Luckily, in THE OLD WAY we get that classic revenge plot as the son of a man Cage’s character killed twenty years earlier shows up looking to settle the score. He’s an outlaw who has three other owlhoots with him, and they wreak bloody havoc when they come calling. The script by Carl W. Lucas throws an unexpected twist into the story, though, as Cage is forced to take his 12-year-old daughter along with him on his vengeance quest. He’s really not suited for parenting, but when it comes to teaching somebody how to survive, he’s pretty good at that.

THE OLD WAY has a lot of things going for it. Brett Donowho’s direction keeps things moving along at a nice brisk pace, and the movie looks great with its Montana scenery and excellent photography. The cast is top-notch with Nick Searcy playing a federal marshal on the trail of the same outlaws Cage is seeking, Clint Howard (who I still remember as a very little kid actor!) as a grizzled old owlhoot, Abraham Benrubi as another member of the gang, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong, who absolutely steals the movie as Cage’s daughter. By the end of it, you’ll believe that a 12-year-old girl can be a badass when she needs to be, and there are some funny scenes along the way that demonstrate how the character has inherited some of her father’s borderline sociopathic tendencies.

I really enjoyed THE OLD WAY. It’s a well-made traditional Western with a few oddball qualities, and I found it very entertaining and well worth watching.