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Rust’s: Every Frame of Alec Baldwin Western Haunted by Deadly Shooting

Story by Nick Schager

• 1d •

5 min read

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office

Rust will forever be defined by the tragic 2021 accidental death of its cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, and questions about the prudence of completing the feature are only exacerbated by the finished product.

Writer/director Joel Souza’s run-of-the-mill Western is far less gripping than the real-life drama that played out on the nightly news regarding star/producer Alec Baldwin’s alleged responsibility for the fatal mishap—charges which were ultimately dropped and dismissed. Rehashing clichés with formal polish but little novelty, this oater is a dour affair made all the grimmer by the fact that there isn’t a second of its 139 minutes that isn’t colored, in some way, by the on-set shooting that made it notable, and notorious, in the first place.

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It’s impossible to watch Rust, which is in theaters and on VOD May 2, and avoid thinking about Hutchins’ unnecessary demise (for which armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted), and not helping matters is that its action repeatedly, if unintentionally, evokes it.

Whether it’s talk about a cursed firearm that begets misfortune and misery, or Baldwin’s protagonist musing, “Some things in this life you can’t get back, I reckon,” echoes abound. And that’s without even mentioning the multiple times that someone points a gun in the general direction of the camera—the very sort of composition that led to Hutchins and Souza being shot (her fatally) during the film’s initial phase of production. With more than one character (including Baldwin’s) expressing remorse and guilt over irreversible calamities in which they had a hand, it winds up resonating in the worst way imaginable. Continue reading