[yasr_overall_rating]
A multi-generational epic telling of the story of America’s birth as a superpower through the bloody rise and fall of one Texas oil empire.
Fellow Irishman Pierce Brosnan has spent many years playing the good guy. From James Bond to Robinson Crusoe and Sally Field’s love interest in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” the suave Irishman has been melting hearts around the world for well over 35 years. From time to time, however, he switches gears and takes on the bad guy roles (“Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “Survivor”) but also ambivalent characters that might not necessarily be straight-up bad, but most certainly have hidden agendas (“The Ghost Writer,” “Seraphim Falls”), and through these parts, he has successfully expanded his acting abilities because let’s be honest, not every actor can be convincing in either role. With “The Son,” he plays Eli McCullough, a Texas native who is the patriarch of a wealthy family who lives in South Texas, just north of the Mexican border. It is 1915 and his two sons, Pete (Henry Garrett) and Phineas (David Wilson Barnes) live on the property with him, as does Pete’s wife Sally (Jess Weixler) and their three kids.
In order to move forward though, we must go back to the beginning. As the story begins, it is 1849 and young Eli (Jacob Lofland) lives with his mother, sister, and brother Martin (Seth Meriwether) in a small house on large acreage in the Texas Panhandle. With their father away working, they are attacked one night by Comanche Indians and both Eli and Martin are kidnapped while their mother and sister are killed. While on their trek back to the Indian’s camp, Martin fears that they are going to be killed no matter what they do so he tries to fight for his life but sadly, loses. Eli learns to keep to himself and to remain quiet and over time, he begins to learn about their ways and culture. An elder Indian, Toshaway (Zahn McClarnon), takes a liking to him and because he never had a family of his own, he takes Eli under his wing like a son. At the same time, a young Indian girl, Prairie Flower (Elizabeth Frances), constantly pushes him around, beating him with a stick when his work slows down but one day, while repeatedly whipping him, he has enough and stands up and punches her in the face. Toshaway pulls him away and lets the situation die down but Prairie Flower is drawn to him, the first time anybody has ever stood up to her and every night, she sneaks into his tipi and they make love.
When another Indian in the tribe, Charges the Enemy (Tatanka Means), expresses interest in her and begins to lavish gifts on her parents in exchange for her hand in marriage, Eli becomes enraged. While talking to Toshaway, he claims that he will kill Charges the Enemy but Toshaway informs him that you do not hurt one of your own. However, one day while Eli is out exploring, he comes across dozens of unbranded horses when Charges the Enemy turns up. Before Eli can say or do anything, Charges pushes him off a cliff and then returns to camp with all the horses and tells everyone that he left to go back to his own people. Unbeknownst to everybody, Eli is alive but suffering from a fractured leg. After some time, he eventually makes his way back to camp, much to everyone’s surprise but by now, Prairie Flower and Charges the Enemy are married so Eli cannot be with her anymore. When the men are out hunting the next day, they come under attack by rangers and when Charges the Enemy is struck down and killed, Eli wounds his attacker, eventually scalping and killing him. Toshaway tells him that he is now a Comanche.
The story moves back and forward in time, from Eli’s youth to him as an older man in his sixties, living with his family in South Texas. The year is 1915 and Eli has spent most of his fortune digging for oil on his land which spans thousands of acres but to no avail. With funds running out, and a recent attack by the Mexican Seditionistas on his largest oil well, he takes up matters with his neighbor, Pedro García (Carlos Bardem), a friend and loyalist to the Seditionistas in the past. Naturally, Pedro denies that he is still working with them but Eli has his doubts. As tension between both families increases, we learn that Pete and Sally have not been getting on for a while now and it is only a matter of time before their marriage ends. When Eli is out riding horseback with his granddaughter one day, he comes across an oil seep but quickly realizes that it is on Pedro’s property. He has his son Phineas meet him in Austin where they bribe a judge to show that Pedro has not paid his taxes for some time, therefore allowing Eli to buy Pedro’s property for practically nothing but later that night, while Eli and Phineas are out as part of a quail hunt, they get separated and Eli is confronted by an Indian woman holding a gun. She reminds him of her small tribe, who she claims he and his men killed some time ago but he tells her that they killed his wife and young son years earlier and that he was seeking revenge. She shoots him and flees and he falls to the ground unconscious.
Traveling between the real world and the spirit world, he meets his younger self, and sees a waiting horse, ready to take him to the next life. As he makes his way towards it, Phineas arrives on the scene and wakes him up. He is rushed to a doctor and makes a good recovery. After the shooting, he informs Phineas that he has had a change of heart and no longer wants Pedro’s land, instead, he would prefer to move up to North Texas, away from the constant fighting in their small town but Phineas is not happy about it. Knowing that tensions are high between the residents of the town and Pedro García, one night, he sneaks into town and sets fire to a bar, knowing that people will point their fingers at Pedro and want justice. Instead of trying to fight it, Eli sees this as a perfect opportunity and rounds up the masses with a rousing speech that points all the blame at Pedro. They make their way to Pedro’s property, the sheriff in tow but Eli is unaware that Pete has caught on to what is happening and he races to Pedro’s to warn them. Pete and Pedro’s daughter Maria (Paola Nuñez) used to be a couple many years ago but their feelings for each other have recently surfaced, much to both Eli and Pedro’s chagrin but when they reach Pedro’s house, and Pete walks out to inform them of his father’s plan, Eli must make a decision: bring down Pedro’s house, along with his son inside, or walk away.
“The Son” was shot entirely in Texas and it shows. I get such a great laugh when a movie or TV show is supposed to take place in a certain state but it looks nothing like it. While the series is filled with top-notch performances by all involved, both Pierce Brosnan and young actor Jacob Lofland, who plays Eli as a boy, steal the show. In most instances, when a film or TV show constantly goes back and forth between alternating timelines, it can get very bothersome but here, the story invests just the right amount of drama in each timeline so when it cuts away from young Eli to his older self, or vice versa, you look forward to whichever story arc is presented to you. AMC just recently renewed “The Son” for a second season and by the end of season one, I was already eager to get going on the next chapter. The show reminded me of “Dallas,” where we are introduced to characters we love, and characters we love to hate. I can envision “The Son” being renewed for many more seasons and I hope it is because just like the great state of Texas, there is no limit as to where it could go.
Available on DVD Tuesday, October 3rd
