--- title: "The Old Way" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-old-way" fi1m_id: "the-old-way" imdb_id: "tt8593824" tmdb_id: 872954 wikidata_id: "Q108782039" fi1m_score: 49 critics_score: 53 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-24T23:11:51.779224+00:00" updated: "2026-09-24T23:11:52.235599+00:00" region: "AT" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Old Way (2023) Directed by Brett Donowho · 1h 35m · Action, Drama, Western ## Identity The Old Way - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-old-way - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-old-way - **IMDb ID:** tt8593824 - **TMDB ID:** 872954 - **Wikidata ID:** Q108782039 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8593824/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/872954, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q108782039 **Fi1m score: 49** · Critics 53 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Nicolas Cage as a gunslinger who feels nothing, in a western that mostly returns the favour > A tidy, familiar revenge western that keeps Nicolas Cage on a low flame and finds its one good idea in a daughter as blank as her father. That fireside scene is worth having; the ninety minutes around it are a film you have seen before. ## Synopsis Twenty years before the main story, the gunfighter Colton Briggs (Nicolas Cage) shoots Walter McCallister (Corby Griesenbeck) dead in a dusty street while McCallister’s small son James watches. In the present, Colton runs a general store in a quiet frontier town, keeps house with his wife Ruth (Kerry Knuppe), and is raising a daughter, Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), who is as blank and literal-minded as he is. James McCallister (Noah Le Gros), now grown, rides in with a gang, Boots (Shiloh Fernandez), Big Mike (Abraham Benrubi) and the jittery Eustice (Clint Howard), to collect on the debt. Marshal Jarret (Nick Searcy) tells Colton to stay home and let the law handle it. Colton fetches his old gun instead, and takes Brooke with him. ## Review Brett Donowho’s *The Old Way* is a revenge western built from parts you will recognise, and it knows it. A gunman kills a man in front of the man’s son; twenty years on, the son comes back with friends. Carl W. Lucas’s script adds one thing to this. Colton Briggs (Nicolas Cage) has put the gun down and become a shopkeeper, and his daughter Brooke (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has turned out exactly like him, a child who does not cry, rarely smiles, and says the true thing at the wrong moment. The film is at its best when it is about those two, and it is about them for perhaps fifteen of its 95 minutes. Cage plays Colton flat and quiet. There is none of the shouting people expect from him; he speaks slowly, in whole sentences, and holds his face still, as if he stopped having feelings some years ago and did not miss them. It is a considered piece of work and it is also a little inert, because the script gives him almost nothing to react to until the last reel. He has one speech, delivered at a campfire, about the way other people seem to feel things he has never been able to feel. It is the reason to see the film. We did not expect to be moved by that scene, and we were. Armstrong listens with the same blank face she has been wearing for an hour, then asks a plain, practical question about whether she is like him, and Cage answers it honestly. Frederick Wardell holds the two of them in the shot long enough for the silence to do the work, and for a few minutes this is a picture about a father telling his daughter what she has inherited. Nothing else in the film earns the moment, but the moment is real. Then somebody says it is time to ride, and it goes back to being a chase. Noah Le Gros plays James McCallister with a soft, courteous menace and more relish than the rest of the cast put together, and the film perks up whenever he is talking. Clint Howard’s Eustice is the gang’s nervous, chattering old-timer, and Howard gets more laughs than the script seems to have planned. Vicki Hales-Daly’s costumes tell the whole story in cloth: Colton in a shopkeeper’s clean waistcoat, then in the long dark coat he has kept all these years; the gang in sweat-stained layers that look as if they have not come off since the war. Tessla Hastings’s general store, swept and orderly with everything on its shelf, is the clearest statement of what this man has been trying to become. The action is the disappointment. The tagline promises a man nobody can outfight, and the film shows us perhaps three brief exchanges of fire, each cut short before it can build. Sion Michel shoots the country wide and in a flat, even daylight that never changes, so a ride of several days looks like one long afternoon, and the gunfights happen in the same light as the shopping. Andrew Morgan Smith’s score swells under every horseback shot as if we might otherwise forget it is a western. Wardell’s cutting, so patient at the campfire, is merely brisk everywhere else. We were bored through the middle third, and being bored in a 95-minute film takes some doing. Against the westerns it is borrowing from, it is small. [*Unforgiven*](https://film.one/film/unforgiven) made a man’s retirement from violence its whole subject; here it is a costume change. Nick Searcy’s Marshal Jarret exists to tell Colton not to do what the film needs him to do, and Kerry Knuppe’s Ruth gets a warm kitchen scene and not much else. The second half goes where you think it will, and we will leave it there. Most critics landed around the middle, and so have we. If you want Cage quiet, and a western that lasts an evening rather than an epoch, it will do. Watch it for the fire, and be honest with yourself about how much you are prepared to sit through for one good conversation. *Fi1m score 49, published 24 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Old Way worth watching?** *The Old Way* is worth watching only for Nicolas Cage's quiet campfire speech to his daughter, and we scored it 49. The 95 minutes around that scene are a familiar revenge western, shot in flat daylight, with brief gunfights and a middle third that bored us. If you want Cage on a low flame for one evening it will do; otherwise there are better westerns. **How long is The Old Way, and what is it rated?** *The Old Way* runs 1h 35m. It is an action and drama film. **Where can I watch The Old Way in Austria?** *The Old Way* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from €3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Old Way, and is it suitable for children?** *The Old Way* is a 15 in the UK and an R in the US, and it is not suitable for children. It opens with a man shot dead in the street in front of his small son and returns to gunfire later, though the action is brief and cut short rather than lingered over. Older teenagers used to westerns will find little here to frighten them, and the squeamish need not fear much. **How does The Old Way compare to True Grit?** *The Old Way* is a smaller, duller film than [*True Grit*](https://film.one/film/true-grit), though both put a stubborn girl beside a ruined old gunman on the trail. The Coens write their pair with wit and let them squabble; Donowho's film has one good fireside conversation between father and daughter and a routine chase around it. Choose *True Grit* unless you specifically want Nicolas Cage kept quiet. **What should I watch after The Old Way?** After *The Old Way*, try [*True Grit*](https://film.one/film/true-grit) (2010, Fi1m 84): A stubborn girl and a ruined old gunman on the trail, written with actual wit. Then [*Slow West*](https://film.one/film/slow-west) (2015, Fi1m 77): A short, odd frontier tale that finds new angles on the pursuit story. ### Reviews we read (9) - **The Guardian**, Wendy Ide (65/100, inferred): Ide calls the western predictable but says Cage and Armstrong make it worth watching. She praises their angular, unexpectedly affecting father-daughter relationship. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jan/15/the-old-way-review-generic-western-nicolas-cage) - **RogerEbert.com** (64/100, inferred): The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint is available from the provided page content. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-old-way-movie-review-2023) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page is identified as a review, but its text is inaccessible. The critic’s verdict and specific praise or complaint cannot be verified. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/05/movies/the-old-way-review.html) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (C): Ehrlich finds the Western competent but overly conventional and lacking ambition. He praises the moments when Cage and Armstrong’s characters begin to understand one another, but faults the dull shootouts and formulaic plotting. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-old-way-review-nicolas-cage-1234796498/) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (1.5/4): The review finds the western clichéd and its second half predictable, despite a weary, understated performance from Nicolas Cage. It praises a tender scene where Colton discusses his difficulty processing emotions, but says the script uses it to excuse rather than contextualize his past. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/the-old-way-review-nicolas-cage/) - **Empire**, Jordan King (25/100, inferred): King finds the film a derivative, shallow Western that squanders its chance to do something new. He praises the father-daughter dynamic and a fireside scene where Cage and Armstrong connect. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-old-way/) - **Film Stories**, Lauren Miles (70/100, inferred): The critic finds The Old Way more engaging than its familiar story suggests, while noting that its action does not fully earn the hero’s fearsome reputation. Cage and Noah Le Gros are praised for performances that lift the cheesy script, while Brooke’s awkward characterization is a key complaint. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/the-old-way-review-nicolas-cages-first-traditional-western/) - **Paste**, Andy Crump (6.1/10): Crump finds the film familiar and ultimately disappointing despite a spark of originality. He praises the campfire scene’s chemistry between Nicolas Cage and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/nicolas-cage/the-old-way-review) - **Collider**, Robert Brian Taylor (D): Taylor finds the Western formulaic and forgettable, with muted performances and little emotional depth. He singles out Clint Howard as the most engaging performer, bringing welcome life to his scenes. [Read](https://collider.com/the-old-way-review-nicolas-cage/) ## Details - **Director:** Brett Donowho - **Director:** Brett Donowho - **Writer:** Carl W. Lucas - **Cinematography:** Sion Michel - **Editor:** Frederick Wardell - **Music:** Andrew Morgan Smith - **Production design:** Tessla Hastings - **Costume design:** Vicki Hales-Daly - **Producer:** Brett Donowho, Micah Haley, Robert Paschall Jr. - **Cast:** Nicolas Cage as Colton Briggs; Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Brooke Briggs; Noah Le Gros as James McCallister; Clint Howard as Eustice; Shiloh Fernandez as Boots; Abraham Benrubi as Big Mike; Nick Searcy as Marshal Jarret; Kerry Knuppe as Ruth Briggs - **Runtime:** 1h 35m - **First release (Brazil):** 6 January 2023 - **Genres:** Action, Drama, Western - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWakq9qQ6Ik ## Where to watch in Austria - Amazon Prime Video: rent €3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy €3.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-24.* Also available in: AE, AT, AU, BE, CA, DE, ES, FI, FR, GB, IT, JP, KR, NL, NO, NZ, PL, SE, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Old Henry* (2021): A farmer with a hidden past, a son who asks questions, and gunplay that lands. - *True Grit* (2010), Fi1m 84: A stubborn girl and a ruined old gunman on the trail, written with actual wit. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/true-grit.md) - *The Proposition* (2005): An Australian revenge western where the violence costs everyone something. - *Pig* (2021): Cage quiet again, and this time the film knows what to do with it. - *Slow West* (2015), Fi1m 77: A short, odd frontier tale that finds new angles on the pursuit story. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/slow-west.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-old-way