The Lawless Nineties: Just another day in the dusty old West

Is it worth your time?

If you like old-school westerns where the good guys are perfect and the bad guys are just waiting to be punched, you’ll probably have a blast with The Lawless Nineties. But if you’re looking for complex storytelling or character arcs that go deeper than 'I like justice' and 'I like dynamite,' you’re going to be bored out of your mind. It’s a B-western, plain and simple.

John Wayne is doing his thing here, which is basically standing tall, looking at the horizon, and making sure the plot gets from A to B before the film roll runs out. He’s got that signature walk, you know the one. He’s pretty much the only thing keeping the energy up when the script decides to take a nap.

The Dynamite Problem

The villains in this movie have a real obsession with dynamite. Seriously, they use it for everything. Need to scare a newspaper editor? Dynamite. Need to stop a vote? More dynamite. It feels less like a strategic criminal operation and more like they just found a crate in a shed and decided to make it their entire personality. It’s goofy, honestly.

There’s a scene where things just get loud for no reason, and I couldn't help but think about how much more subtle the chaos was in Dynamite. Here, it’s just noise.

• John Wayne looks like he's trying not to laugh at some of the dialogue.
• The horses clearly have more acting range than half the supporting cast.
• Wyoming looks suspiciously like the same patch of dirt they used in every other film from that era.

The pacing is all over the place. One minute someone is getting shot, the next we’re watching a conversation that feels like it’s happening in real-time. It’s got that weird, jerky rhythm common in these old studio fillers.

I caught myself looking at the background extras more than the main plot. There’s one guy in the saloon scene who just keeps leaning against the same post for, like, three full minutes. What is he doing? Why is he there? I’ll never know. 🤠

It’s not trying to be a masterpiece. It knows exactly what it is: a quick, punchy flick for a Saturday afternoon. It doesn't ask for your brain, and it doesn't give you much to remember, but it’s fine. Sometimes 'fine' is all you really need.

Maybe skip it if you're feeling picky. Keep it on the list if you just want to see some classic western tropes being thrown around like confetti.