Another Western?  Noooooooo, it isn't.  Like most good movies with a Western backdrop the key to the film is a good story.  That's one of the reasons that I've often thought Westerns are an excellent genre - the writer is not encumbered by needing to explain job, marriage, kids, etc.  We can just get right to story.  Fun fact - The story in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly was borrowed from a ninja movie.  A good story is a good story regardless of genre.

First and foremost, the acting is tremendous.  Phoenix and Jake Gyllenhaal offer up stellar performances but the real heart of this movie comes from John C. Reilly and Riz Ahmed (who was excellent in The Night Of).   From beginning to end this just has a very unique feel to it that I couldn't put my hand on.  The final five minutes made me realize what that feeling was (I won't say here).  The message of the film wasn't about the old west or anything like that.  To borrow from the Grinch:  it was something much more.

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