Old Henry (2021)

Plot of Old Henry: An emaciated old widower who farms an inhospitable spread in the boondocks of Oklahoma, with his teenage son, is tested when a riderless horse shows up on the hillside. When they track its course they find an unconscious man, a saddlebag full of money and a six gun. All are taken back to their farmhouse. After a while three riders show up, claiming to be lawmen from Woods County, looking for the man. Henry, the farmer, tells them he knows nothing, but they are suspicious. The teenager is fired up for action,  but Henry councils caution and over time gets a story out of the injured man, who also claims to be a lawman. The trio of horsemen have not gone away, and when one of them is assigned to check on Henry, and instead takes him on in a shoot out, we can see that Henry is not just an old farmer. The interloper is killed and fed to the pigs. The rest will be back, with support so Henry opens his secret box of fire arms and gets ready.

Content: No sex or nudity, or actually any women. In the opening scene we see the trio of riders catch someone and kill him, then string up the body. Once Henry and his son have recovered the injured man, we have to know whether he is a good guy or not. To find out more Henry removes a bullet from his shoulder painfully. Henry quizzes him about his past and in the story there are clues about them both. Students of the history of the old west will now know where this is going. In the gun battle between one of the three horsemen and Henry, the former is fairly easily dispatched, and fed to the pigs. The son is always angry about being told to keep out of the way, but finally they all have to shape up.

A View: This film seems to have made virtually no money, even though it was well reviewed and received some accolades. I really like films where the main protagonist is actually not at all what he appears to be, and so it is with Old Henry. Henry’s brother-in-law is featured only so that he can say to the villains ‘You have no idea the hell storm you’re about to let loose’. And so it was. If you enjoy a revisionist western, seek this one out.

Fun Fact: Wyatt, the son, has a go with a revolver sometimes using two hands. Experts suggest that the technique was not developed until the 1950s.