Rust starring Alec Baldwin, a western drama

On May 2 of 2025 the movie Rust was released on Amazon and is currently available for free with an Amazon subscription. This western drama was written and directed by Joel Souza. Even though it portrays some violence, it was released as Not Rated; I would suggest it deserves a rating of PG-13. It stars Alec Baldwin who co-wrote the story with Souza, and stars Patrick Scott McDermott, Josh Hopkins, Frances Fisher, and Travis Fimmel. The film only took in $26,831 against a budget of $8 million; the poor financial showing was most likely due to the bad press.

 

You may remember the tragic news about this movie which began filming in New Mexico on Oct, 6, 2021. When working with prop guns, special licensed personnel on the movie set are required to clear all firearms before filming to ensure safety. However, because some of the crew had been using the weapons to shoot beer cans to pass the time, a single live round was left in one of the guns used by Baldwin. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot, and Director Souza was injured in the incident. Baldwin would be cleared of criminal charges and those responsible, including firearms inspector Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, served 18 months for the accidental shooting. When filming resumed, despite some of the original cast and crew being reluctant to continue, it did receive help from Matthew Hutchins, Halyna's husband as an executive producer and it received a blessing from the Hutchins family who wanted Halyna’s final work to be completed.

 

The story is set in 1882 Wyoming. Lucas Hollister, 13, and his little brother Jacob are trying to move on after the deaths of their parents; they are very poor farmers and close to starving. While chasing a wolf, Lucas kills the father of a bully who hurt Jacob and is sentenced to hang. Before he can be hanged, he is broken out of jail by his grandfather, notorious outlaw Harland Rust. The two run south toward Mexico; Lucas is reluctant because he wants to get back to his brother. My favorite line from this movie comes from Baldwin while he’s breaking his unconscious grandson out of jail. After shooting two lawmen, he says to a frightened deputy, “You tell any son-of-a-b** that comes after me, they’ll be shaking hands with the devil himself.” I only watched this movie because I’m such a fan of Baldwin’s performance in the original Beetlejuice. I was surprised by how much I liked this film, and I feel bad for dismissing Baldwin over the accidental shooting. I hate to admit the bad press influenced me. This is a good movie; it just had to go through hell to get there!