Different Actors Would Have Made It A Blockbuster

According to Box Office Mojo it only made $27 million worldwide on a $20 million production budget. Once you factor in marketing and distribution that's not very good. I would hardly say it "did very well in theaters."

I'm a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar.
Avatar: 10/10
Up in the Air: 10/10

Apart from some perceived problems with the casting of Zellwegger (see other threads) the three principal men did very well and Irons and Mortensen just love that kind of role. The suggested replacements are just subjective preferences that wouldn't have saved this movie, which sadly failed due to the plodding screenplay. And without the name actors it would be a D-list potboiler attracting no comments. The movie's four main actors were all famous enough to carry it, all other things being equal, which they weren't. But you have to respect the project as such, being the low-budget exercise it was.

Bale is too young to play Bragg's part.

Off topic: Er, Day-Lewis is more famous than Irons? In some circles, maybe.

Irons isn't more famous than Sam Elliot?

Who were the big actors in the first Star Wars? Twilight? Hurt Locker? Band of Brothers? Star Trek (2009)? Slumdog Millionaire? Actors that better fit the roles, not bigger. You put the right actors in the right roles and it will take off. Or get a cult following later. Plus, you shave money off salaries right off the bat.
You don't think so? Google the SNL parodies of famous actors for Star Wars. It was hilarious because fame doesn't mean you are right for a part.


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I rented this film but didn't finish it. I was really disappointed as I looked forward to it since reading how Ed Harris cast VM. He thought through which actor he would trust with his life in the Old West and came up with Viggo Mortensen!

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

Ed Harris is famous from the 80s. His big break came in 83 when cast as John Glenn in The Right Stuff. Along with 89's The Abyss. Jeremy Irons first big splash was 81's The French Lieutenant's Woman. Of the main characters only Rene started getting good roles in the 2000s, Viggo was in Crimson Tide and supporting actor in G.I. Jane both from the 90s. So, I really don't know what your line about people famous from the 90's relates? Are they too old or too young? BTW, Clint Eastwood is famous from the 60s and was excellent in Gran Torino. And don't forget Betty White. lol, she ROCKS.

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I agree completely, I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm not sure what this controversy surrounding the casting of zellwigger is, but I thought she brought great substance to her "character".

Each actor in this film faces his or her own daunting moral choices, choices that they will be judged upon, by their fellow charcters, aby their fellow actors, and by the audience, no less. Set in that pre-government phase of American history (the "free" part), the 1880s, a time in America that included, for many, the friction between having internal security (well being) and one's sense of living on the razor's edge, and the choices that people make within that difficult human condition.

In Zellwigger's case, as a woman in the wide-open west, the audience as asked to judge her, and in that process we learn more about our own prejudices than perhaps we might like, but that is just one of many great examples of how this film stretches the viewer.

I thought VM stole the movie with an assist to his "girlfriend" who, despite her profession or position in society, is shown to be the one charcter with the innate ability to see through the masks and tell it like it really is.

This was a film of excellent depth. In many ways, this is an 'art film" trying to breakthrough the mainstream barrier. The 6.8 rating is too low, imo, which is probably another story altogether (having to do with people's expectations of the film). It probably didn't get the kind of audience it deserved, maybe it was poorly "branded" (ahem).

Ed Harris can be very proud, indeed, in any case. 8/10 easy.

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