Westender (2003)

Set in a fictitious medieval world, this Odyssey of one man's personal redemption is an entertaining and thought-provoking tale rife with swordplay, humor, intrigue, and fantasy. Blake Stadel stars as a legendary knight who has mysteriously fallen from grace.

DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes
Featurette:The Creation of Westender featurette
Theatrical Trailer

103 MINUTES OF UNFULFILLED POTENTIAL

Buried somewhere deep within WESTENDER'S meandering script there's a good story waiting to break out. And so for over an hour-and-a-half I watched and waited for that to happen. Sadly, it never did. WESTENDER is the story of a disgraced and disillusioned knight's struggle to come to terms with the brutal death of his beloved wife and his own identity. There are a few quick flashbacks, but most of the backstory is left to the viewer's imagination. There seems to be a war on, and the King desperately needs the sword of this once-great fighter, but Asbrey of Westender just wants to be left alone with his personal demons. We follow Asbrey on a long, tedious trek through towering forests and barren desserts where he encounters jesters, hermits, and a strange otherworldy dog while haunted by visions of his wife and past wars. On paper the plot doesn't sound half-bad, but in practice very little about it actually works. Most of the film is simply one scene after another of Asbrey walking...and walking...and walking. Nothing much ever happens to break the monotony. The acting is respectable and the cast seems earnest, but to no avail. There's just not enough story here, and too much down time. There is a little action mixed in, but not much. A couple of characters who seem like they're going to be pretty important just disappear and never come back. Asbrey's visions are sometimes rather interesting but also very cryptic and never fully explained. The end of Asbrey's journey is abrubt, unconvincing and a hopeless anti-climax. What just happened? What, it's not over, is it? Yes it is. WESTENDER is obviously low-budget, but better characterization and more drama could have made up for that. I've enjoyed many fantastic tales of heroic quests over the years, but WESTENDER may be the worst fantasy I've ever seen. Poorly paced and awkwardly written, WESTENDER'S journey is best left unfollowed. July 21, 2008

Like being bored? Buy this movie!

Wow. I watch a LOT of film...and manage to enjoy most of it just for production's sake, or for my own edification. This takes the cake as something I tried to enjoy from ANY angle and just couldn't. I tried to stay awake for most of the film but actually fell asleep due to lack of plot. I convinced myself to restart the film the following day thinking it couldn't get any worse. I was wrong.

Getting past the lousy quality of story and action, be warned that this DVD would not play on ANY of three computer DVD machines I normally use to watch movies (my personal plus two at work) and I was amazed that it loaded quickly into an older Sony component model DVD easily.

Don't waste your time, find something that offers any of the above instead: a story, some decent acting, passable cinematography, a good swordfight, beautiful scenery, lush music, pretty production elements. Westender has none of them. February 17, 2008

neither as good nor as bad as reviewed here ...

I picked this movie up secondhand. I'm not quite sure I agree with any of the reviewers who gave it 1 or 5 stars. Rather than go into depth, I'll talk about what the movie does well, and what it does not do well.
What is done well:
1. the music. Evocative score that far outdistances the movie.
2. use of Oregon's diverse natural scenery. In fact, this movie should be a travel commercial for hiking through Oregon.
3. Subtlety. There is a lot of personal struggle here, and it is very nicely woven into the script.
What is not done well:
1. dialogue. the dialogue tends to be trite and, for lack of a better word, cheesy. (That's "corny" to anyone younger than Gen X). The dialogue is either way too earnest (falls on its face trying too hard) or does not take itself seriously. Either way, the dialogue adds little to, and detracts much from, the story. The best parts of the movie have no lines!
2. editing. Some of the scenes need to be shortened. Some reviewers claim this entire movie is about walking. While it isn't that bad, there needed to be another round of editing.
3. the acting. Aside from Blake Stadel, few of the cast actually stand out. The jester is an exception: he stands out because he is glaringly bad. Hampered by the worst lines in the film, this character fails to convince. The gypsy woman (played, I think, by Darlene Dadras) is a character that needed a little more screen time--she managed to stand out in spite of her bad lines.

This movie seems to have garnered more than its share of attention, considering its budget and some of its glaring flaws. There is something about the way Westender is put together that grabs hold of an archetypal struggle. It was much easier than I expected to identify with the protagonist.

A look at the film website's project page reveals the goals of the team behind the film. They wanted a story about an inner oddysey that had "mainstream" sensibilities (read: appears to be a plot-driven narrative). Westender suffers from trying to be too many things at once. I wanted more of what was good about this movie, because what was there was seriously hampered by its flaws. I hope that MOB productions learns from its first time out: focus on your strengths.

I will watch this movie several more times because there is truth in the archetypal themes of Asbrey's struggle. But this will not be a fully enjoyable experience for me, as the weaknesses I mentioned above are glaring enough to detract from the story.

In short, this is a good film that only occasionally breaks free from its bad points. September 1, 2007

A good idea

The concept was great it was the movie itself. It felt like a d- listed Gladiator. February 3, 2007

Worth a chance

This is a mediocre film, and whilst not being an epic is certainly thought provoking. Considering this movie is not made by a huge film studio it is a worthy attempt at making a film. There are some flaws to the movie as mentioned in a few other reviews. The amount of film time just concentrated on the main character walking was a waste of movie time. It certainly begs the question what's wrong with riding horses. Also you see that Asbrey the main character has some deep seated issues but the film does not really explore those. Thus it is hard to relate to this character. The film also makes reference to Asbrey losing his lifes love but again it is so vague you don't really know what happened. Really the main draw to this film is seeing this man wrestle with his own personal ghosts but sadly this is just not explored enough and you are left needing an explanation. Some scenes are slightly odd and this is because the plot is just not developed well enough. Some decent fighting scenes are in this movie as well as some reasonable acting by some unknowns. Certainly i would not watch this movie over and over again but i feel it is worth a look. September 25, 2006

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