How does one even begin addressing The Night They Came Home Perhaps it could be the odd framing device featuring Danny Trejo as an old man telling the story to two irrelevant characters for the plot? Or perhaps we should look at the film’s odd interest in male violence towards women at the time in which this film is set, which is so odd as to culminate in a series of scenes of a woman being sexually assaulted, which are both jaw-dropping and entirely out of context. Or could it be the sheer failure of the project at any particular time, even for something as basic as a shootout, where the sound of a rifle being cocked was most likely a sound of a video game in load time.
Perhaps the budget can be a crutch to clarify the reason for the apparent low production value of this production. To be fair, however, directors are doing amazing work on remarkably low budgets, so this kind of a plea can not be entertained any more. Neither does a shortage of funds account for the woeful writing of the screenplay. The script, written by John A. Russo and James O’Brien, manages to weave a comprehensive narrative in the form of a jigsaw puzzle. Out of marketing for The Night They Came Home, we get to know that the story is ‘inspired by multiple true incidents.’ It spans the biography of a rather unspectacularly devious gang’s head named Buck (Charlie Townsend) and his Rufus Buck Gang and their association with a sheriff (Tim Abell) who tries to meddle with the gang’s illegal activities by purporting to conduct his own investigation.
An oddity in itself, this movie seems rather self conscious about dividing the narrative vertically. None of the characters, who comprise Buck’s children or the sheriff, is even a little interesting, most likely because of Volk’s film directing, which consisted of simply one take of people reciting lines. Still, the equivalence of these sides is quite a commentary because our inclination will always be toward the demise of the gang anyway. Can They See You Certainly But also die in a soft saturation, At no point do Volk and the script’s co writers show an ounce of concern for the band during and after their motives.
There is, of course, no ground for this the night they came home and what comes out is anger and gun violence at a timer that feels like it is just there to fill up the gaps accompanied with the digitally enhanced sounds and absolutely zero awareness of how to build up the suspense. By the end of the movie, the audience must have been annoyed and frustrated because they only encounter a couple of characters, the most exciting of which is a almost bored Trejo along with Robert Carradine as a promising but ultimately additional waste of time in a film full of spends.
The premise had promise: a gang out of control in Indian Territory and the tribes uniting to stop them. Still, with all this fertile ground, the plot was terribly neglected because of the crude dialogue created by John A. Russo and James O’Brien. Every line was predictable, dialogue gratingly orthodox, and interactions become stale and drained the character of any realism to the level they were stuck in some dry desert lands of the old western movies.
Then comes the cast ensemble which includes some of the known actors with Brian Austin Green being most well cast of all, but even Green seems to be nearly inhibited by the inept script as there is no scope for any valid depth of his character. Simultaneously, the character Rufus Buck as played by Charlie Townsend looks even more one dimensional, more so than a pancake. Rather than having the fierce and dominant presence that is important in playing a character with such attributes, he lumbers awkwardly and colorlessly on screen.
While it is usually a pleasure to watch Danny Trejo because of his brooding, electric presence – in ‘Digger’, he was unfortunately quite muted. Trejo is known for his kinetic energy and was unfortunately sidelined, his talents drastically limited. Equally extreme was Robert Carradine who overplayed the subtleties, turning the hard-nosed, endearing character into a ridiculously openly cast one.
Not even the cinematography came close to salvaging the few redeeming features of what The Night They Came Home had. Simplistic in the execution of the various scenes in the film Dry and with little oceanic views that are typical of Western thrillers.
Native Americans were included in the cast that had the possibility of adding more narrative complexity and social insights to the film, but this was just another opportunity missed by the creators. With every mention, stereotyping was rampant and pushed a well-meaning subplot into cringe levels hence as usual ruined the scope of the film which could have looked at race relationships in a lawless world.
In the same vein, the background music did not help the situation either. The history of the narrative type in such cases can be jarring at scenes that are critical to the action. It detracts from the already poor plot instead of providing any kind of assist to immersion.
Overall:
As a narrative and premise, The Night They Came Home suggested an interesting story of camaraderie, action, and ethics set against a towering Rocky Mountains. This expectation is not met however, leading to clichéd dialogues, wasting talent and affecting the unutilized potential, which makes for painful viewing.
The filmmaking team could have done more in that regard and go so far as to say there were opportunities to elevate their film to an excellent Western drama for nearly all of the time. It was a feeble effort especially when witnessed against the captivating historical setting it attempted to portray but failed.
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