ANGEL AND THE BAD 2026
This is where I have to put a on date myself, because it's important to how I viewed this movie. I am sixty-eight years old, and trust me, I've viewed a whole bunch of westerns. The very first important western movies that I the pleasure to watch were "The Magnificent Seven" (1960) which I saw on T.V. in 1965, which was a movie that set the tone for westerns that came after it, The Good The Bad and The Ugly" (1966) which I actually saw the theater when it came out. In between all of that, I was raised on a healthy dose of John Wayne movies, T'.V. westerns, "Gun Smoke", "Have Gun, will travel", "Bonanza" and "Davy Crocket" and a whole cavalcade of other westerns and frontier movies that came along. Add to that, the next level dramatic westerns like Sam Peckinpah's , "The Wild Bunch.", "True Grit", and 'The Long Riders." In the author's humble opinion, the last great western made was "Tombstone." But I must point out, that during the last fifty years of film making, a whole lot of things have changed in the way that films were shot and produced. Especially with the introduction of computer technology in film making. The technical aspects and cinemaphotography are considerably different than they were in 1960, but so is the mindset of our culture, this last fact is very important to take note of where Angel and the Badman is concerned.
But with all of that said, if you're looking for the Good The Bad and the Ugly or true Grit, you're not going to find it in Angel and the Bad Man, but if you go back and watch the original version of Angel and the Badman that was made in 1947, you'll find the actual model for the 2026 version, except that the 21st century version moves Angel and The Bad Man into a more mature vision that deals with immorality, violence, family and faith in God, which by the way, isn't any different than the original and just like the days of early film making, there are no emotional or dramatic movie musical scores, you'll only hear the typical music that supports each scene. In fact, the background music isn't very memorable at all. A big take away here is that Angel and the Badman relied on something ancient and obscure to both actors and movies goers, in that the movie relied on two basic things, that being cinemaphotography and real acting and dialog between people, just like the 1947 version employed. I enjoyed the simple rolling scenery of the desert and rolling plains, because I understand that most of the American west is rolling plains and scrub brush desert and it's not all monument Valley Utah. A warning to historians and thread counters, the wardrobe in Angel and the Badman is not exactly historically correct attire, and it seems that the wardrobe is used as a way to highlight the characters and scenes. I won't go into too many details of the movie, and you'll get no spoilers from me, because I think you should see the movie. If you do decide to see this movie for any reason, my advice is to see it as a witness to the shift in culture and to watch the western genre trying repeat its formula for success from the very beginning. On October 4th, 2026, I wrote a review of the original 1947 version of Angel and the Badman, you can read that here. The Angels Studios version used a lot of the original plot, but it made some significant artistic changes. The biggest part of the plot leaves western fans with one mystery and question, where did the Confederate gold come from? My mind went to Jesse James and the Knights of the Golden Circle. But you'll have to figure it out on your own.
G.C. Stevens, See you on the dusty trail!
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