Gone are the Days - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Gone are the Days

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I make no bones about the fact that I’m a die hard western fan. Growing up with a grandfather who was a rancher in California, I was inundated with John Wayne, Charles Bronson, Lee Van Cleef, Rock Hudson, Clint Eastwood and many more country western film legends. All of whom crafted my long running love affair with the dead genre. Well, I should say ALMOST dead genre, as the western has been making a slow but stead come back over the last 15 years. It’s not at the peak power that it was during the 1960s and before, but the once dead genre has had a breath of life pushed into its lungs due to some really well made westerns from modern directors. Now, the one area that the western never really left is the direct to video market. That is the one place (probably due to the cheap budget required for a dramatic western comparatively) that the cowboys and outlaws have continued to thrive. Even though most of them are pretty much garbage, I am honor bound to check them out and lament at their state of being.

While most are really bad, some of them are actually quite decent, but those are few and far between. Amusingly enough, cult actor Danny Trejo has started to make a DTV career out of playing grizzled western characters, so when I saw Gone are the Days starred the aging Hispanic actor, I had to check it out for sheer morbidity’s sake. As fate would have it, the front cover is just a TAD misleading. Danny Trejo’s face is plastered over the cover, but he’s actually only in it for a grand total of about 4 minutes as a mysterious stranger. This is really a one man story about an aging outlaw (played by Lance Henriksen) gaining a sort of redemption in his final hours.

Lance Henriksen is Taylon Flynn, a dying old man who’s about to meet his maker. It’s never mentioned WHAT is killing him, but we can assume its bad as he’s coughing up blood and stumbling around with barely any energy. The town doctor has given him bed rest orders and a bottle of cough syrup (which was made of pure liquid heroin back then), but he doesn’t have much hope for the old man and promises to bring back the priest before he dies in the next few days. However, Taylon is not going to go out peacefully. He’s an old bank robber and old outlaws don’t go away into the night peacefully. After he’s visited by his old partner Virgil (Billy Lush), the old man straps on his six guns, grabs his rifle, and heads off to Durango to rob one more bank before he dies.

However, things get sidetracked when Taylon visits a small town along the way to see an old friend, only to find out that his buddy Sam is dead, and the daughter that doesn’t know he exists (whom Sam was raising as his own) is now out working as a cheep “working girl” for the sleazy local bartender named Jaden (Steve Railsback). Furious about his only daughter forced into a life of servitude, the dying outlaw does everything he can to take her out of this life and given something fresh. Something that he never had the chance to have in his line of work.

Gone are the Days isn’t a great hidden gem. In fact, it’s not really a fantastic movie in general, but it does manage to be much more interesting than I ever expected it to be considering the DTV nature. Lance Henriksen has always been a power house of man, with a harsh gravelly voice that lends itself toward rough and tumble characters. The wizened old man (and Lance IS getting up there) does a good job at portraying an old outlaw who barely has a grip on reality. He’s fading in and out of consciousness much of the time, and the good old fashioned frontier medicine keeps him in a drugged up state. It’s hard to tell (for most of the film) who is real and who is actually just Taylon’s mind drudging up old memories. Which actually adds to the charm of the film, making it one of the more unique western’s I’ve seen in a while.




Rating:

Rated R for violence, language, some drug material and nude images




Video:

The digitally shot western looks rather good on Blu-ray, which is pretty much a standard these days. It’s REALLY hard to have a weak looking transfer due to modern filming practices unless the studio really messes up the encode, or the stylistic choices intentionally degrade the picture. The 2.39:1 framed movie shows off plenty of details, with Lance’s grizzly beard and torn up and soiled old long underwear showing us every nuance that it can. There is a distinctly “white sand” look to the movie, with most color desaturated for the most part. They’re still there, it’s just the brown and sand colored clothing and buildings don’t lend itself towards bright and shiny colors. Blacks are well done and deep, with only minimal instances of banding in the darker shots. Gone are the Days enjoys a competent looking Blu-ray, and one that few people will find too many faults with.






Audio:

Lionsgate’s 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless track is just as impressive as the video, with a strong sounding mix that really doesn’t shirk on any of the goodies. Being the dramatic western that it is, and not a wild action packed one, the front of the sound stage gets the brunt of the heavy lifting. Dialog is firmly placed up front, and most of the creaking sounds of the old western town is given play in the two mains, with some mild ambient activity in the surrounds. The sounds of the fire crackling in the distance as Taylon sets fire to his ranch is perfectly audible, and the little bits of hubbub in the crowded saloon light up the back a bit. When the final act begins with the confrontation between Taylon and his nemesis, things get a bit more heated and LFE gets some punch, but other than that, the bass is a rather mild and restrained experience.






Extras:

• “Behind the Scenes of Gone Are the Days” Featurette
• Cast and Crew Interviews
• Trailers

Final Score: ​

As I said, Gone are the Days is not a great film, but it is a moderately entertaining western nonetheless. The surreal nature of Taylon’s last days is fascinating to watch, but the film is also about 20 minutes too long, and really could use some better secondary actors. I found it amusing that Danny Trejo was used to sell the film, but he’s actually a tiny bit character, and even the great Tom Berenger is fairly reserved in his screen presence. While I wouldn’t go out of my way to buy the film for full price, Gone are the Days makes a solid rental and Lionsgate’s Blu-ray disc carries some good technical specs to enjoy.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Tom Berenger, Meg Steedle, Danny Trejo
Directed by: Mark Landre Gould
Written by: Gregory M. Tucker
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 10th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Rental

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I also like westerns so while this isn't great, it is at least worth a watch.

Will check it out once available on amazon prime/netflix.