Diablo

I was flipping through the on demand movies yesterday and I came across a “western” called “Diablo”. That title sounds like a western movie in itself, but besides that, the other thing that caught my attention? The actor billed as the star of this film is named Eastwood… Scott Eastwood.

I also noticed that the splash screen for the movie looked very similar to the imagery associated with the old spaghetti westerns in which another Eastwood starred back in the 1960s. I knew that it wouldn’t be anything like the old stuff, but that name, that title, along with the imagery associated with the movie was just too much for me to pass up!

“Diablo” is set in 1872 after the Civil War. Scott Eastwood portrays a Veteran of the Union Army named Jackson. The film opens as his wife is kidnapped by a gang of Mexicans. Jackson has no choice but to ride after them and try to get her back. This may sound like a fairly common theme for a western. Scott Eastwood looks so much like his dad it almost seems like you are staring at the elder Eastwood as he looked back in his younger days. But that is where the similarities end.

As Jackson embarks on what seems to be a rescue mission, it slowly becomes apparent that there is something “not quite right” going on… In fact, there is something “not quite right” about Jackson… Is he a man on a righteous mission or is there something darker happening here? Why do all of the people he interacts with seem to see something we don’t? And why do they seem to all end up dead? Something about Jackson is making everyone nervous and they seem to just want him to go away.

This may not be a traditional western movie, but it is worth watching as it is a unique tale of a man who has spiraled into the depths of his own unraveled mind and he doesn’t even know it.

The movie has a cast of well-known faces such as Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, Sliverado), Walton Goggins (Justified) and Adam Beach (Windtalkers).

Cap’n Ron