Falling Forward FilmsRust hits cinemas this week, and the western’s director has had a dig at the film’s star Alec Baldwin, by knocking his reality TV show.
The release of western movie Rust has been overshadowed by the tragedy that occurred onset, when an accidental discharge from Alec Baldwin’s gun injured director Joel Souza, and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
The movie’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was ultimately found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison, while the case against Baldwin was dismissed following news that the prosecution had withheld evidence from the defense.
Now some three-and-a-half years on from the incident, Rust is opening in US cinemas, and Souza is talking about both the accident, and his difficult working relationship with Baldwin.
Rust director busy “hitting myself in the face” when The Baldwins was on
The AvenueWriter-director Joel Souza says he initially didn’t want to complete the movie after the accident, telling The Guardian: “The [Hutchins] family wanted it completed. I’d been repelled by the thought of going back, but now it started to appeal. And I couldn’t live with the idea of someone else doing it.”
Souza continues: “I was a mess going in and a mess coming out. The crew carried me through. My family carried me through. Emotionally, I was all over the map.”
As for working with Baldwin, The Guardian reports that they clashed over the actor’s character during the initial shoot, with Souza stipulating that everyone had to unite behind his vision when they returned.
Souza: “It’s not that I’m standing there with my foot on anybody’s neck. But there were fights I needed not to have. That was the only way I could get through this.”
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But while their working relationship improved, the director says he didn’t watch Alec’s reality TV series The Baldwins, joking that “I think I was busy hitting myself in the face with a frying pan that night.”
What the critics are saying about Rust
Rust is set in 1880s Wyoming, and concerns a 13-year-old boy sentenced to death for accidentally shooting a rancher, who goes on the run with his estranged grandfather. The reviews so far are good, without being great.
In that same piece, The Guardian calls Rust: “a solid piece of work, gorgeously photographed by Hutchins and Bianca Cline, the latter shooting the 50% or so of scenes that hadn’t been completed.”
Variety says: “the movie ‘delivers’ without ever becoming an adventure to remember.”
Falling Forward FilmsThe Hollywood Reporter reports that: “The film is competently made and absorbing at times, but there’s a workaday quality that slows its momentum. It’s a handsomely made project, but a story about such a complicated set of characters should make us feel more strongly, and Rust struggles to accomplish that.
While Deadline writes that: “Rust, with its themes of loss, regrets, and redemption does work, and much of the credit goes to sharp direction by Souza and the gorgeous photography of the American west by Hutchins and later Cline.”
Rust hits US screens on May 2, 2025, while if you’re a fan of the genre, check out our list of the best movie westerns of all-time, and the best western TV show that isn’t Yellowstone.