What was I doing in 2015 that I missed Jane Got a Gun?  I say this as somebody who is currently working through whatever it is I can find on streaming services for free.  Amazon Prime is becoming an increasingly unreliable source for films.  If you scroll through its offerings, you will see a lot of productions made by either lesser-known companies, or foreign ones.  There is nothing wrong with such movies, but they pose a little bit of a dilemma for a daily reviewer, Catholic or otherwise.  Aside from being more obscure titles, they rarely have anyone starring in them who you would recognize.  This does not always deter me, but I do try to err on the side of fame, for better or worse.  Thus, when I came across today’s piece and saw that it has Joel Edgerton, Ewan McGregor, and Natalie Portman, I wondered why I had not heard of it.  Maybe it rang some faint bell in the back of my mind, but nothing specific.  Perhaps it is because of the somewhat silly name it has?  Or the fact it is a Western, which is not my favorite genre?  Either way, I am mostly glad I found it, and hopefully you will be, too.

The person referred to in Jane Got a Gun is Jane Hammond (Natalie Portman).  She lives with her young daughter and husband, Bill Hammond (Noah Emmerich), on a farm in the middle of nowhere New Mexico.  Since it is 1871, I suppose I just gave you a repetitive description.  At any rate, she is horrified to witness Bill ride up to the house, but not make it there, falling from his saddle due to being shot several times.  As she brings him in to start tending to his wounds, he mentions that he had tangled with the Bishop Boys, led by John Bishop (Ewan McGregor).  Bill had killed five of their men before being critically wounded, barely managing to escape.  Now, the Bishop Boys are coming to their spread to finish him off.  Jane is not about to let this happen.  Thus, she takes her girl to a neighbor’s spread, and goes to find help.  The person she turns to is Dan Frost (Joel Edgerton).  Now, the movie gives you how all these people fit together in flashbacks, and they are not told in order, which gets somewhat confusing until it is all explained at the end.  Thus, I am going to give you the whole backstory at this point.  Jane is from Missouri.  When she lived there, she had been engaged to Dan.  He had decided to answer the call to join the Union Army during the Civil War despite her objections.  Because she had not heard from him, she presumed he was dead.  She had become pregnant by him, but did not know until after he left.  Thus, she decides to take her daughter, Mary (Piper Sheets), and go west, a dream she once shared with him.  To get there, she signed on with a wagon train to be led by John and his group of armed men, he intending to start his own town.  Among John’s henchmen is Bill, and he falls in love with Jane.  This proves to be advantageous because Bill ends up saving Jane from a life of prostitution in John’s new town called Lullaby.  The person Bill could not rescue is Mary. Devastated, they decide to move on and start their own family.  What Jane does not know is that Dan survived the war, having been unable to write because he had been captured.  He also traveled in her wake looking for her.  When he finally found her, he sees that she has a baby and a new life.  As such, he also tries to start anew.  All of this is helpful to know as to why Dan decides to help Jane.  However, he initially refuses, bitter for seemingly being forgotten by her.  Instead, she goes into town to purchase as many weapons and ammunition as her money can bring her.  On the way out, she is accosted by one of the Bishop Boys, but any harm is prevented by Dan’s arrival.  She finishes her attacker off with a bullet to his head.  From there, it is back to the farm to prepare for the impending raid by the Bishop Boys.  Bill is surprised to find Dan alive since Bill had thought his rival for Jane’s affections dead.  Dan sees Bill as a usurper, and is about to kill the wounded man until Jane intervenes.  This is when she fills in her former fiancé about the existence of Mary.  At any rate, they do not have long to wait until John’s ruffians locate the Hammond farm.  Bill and Dan separately suggest that Jane get away while there is still time, but she is determined to protect what is hers.  Dan is wounded in the shoulder during the opening salvo of the night attack.  Bill is struck by a bullet, too, and this is what ultimately kills him.  Dan is able to spring the traps they had planted in the yard: jars full of kerosine with shards of glass in them.  This thins the herd assaulting the farm, but more keep coming.  For a short period they attempt to hide in the cellar, and this is where Bill dies.  Seeing that it is not the strongest position, Dan and Jane re-emerge.  Jane is shot in the stomach, and Dan attempts to go outside to finish off anyone remaining.  This is when John walks up behind Dan and puts a pistol to his adversary’s head.  They go back inside the house, but Jane pulls the same stunt on John.  This is when John reveals that Mary is still alive, hoping the information will save his life.  It does not.  Since pretty much all the Bishop Boys are wanted men with prices on their hides, Jane is able to turn in their bodies and reap a substantial reward.  She then collects her daughters, and it is off with Dan to California.

I suppose you could say that Dan and Jane ride off into the sunset at the end of Jane Got a Gun.  It is an appropriate cliché for what is otherwise a pretty standard Western.  I do not mean that as a criticism, but more of a statement of fact.  It is fine, though my history brain had a small conniption when I saw Dan and Jane take a romantic hot air balloon ride, 1860s style.  This stretches believability, to say the least.  What appealed to my Catholic brain (though I swear I am not schizophrenic) is Jane’s determination to fight for her children.  Any mother watching this, or reading this, might say that they would do likewise if put into a similar situation.  While her reaction to being targeted by the Bishop Boys is not the most Christian, what I appreciate about it is the desire to protect life.  To this end, there is a line in it, not from Jane but by Dan, who advises her that, “The only way to fight a battle is to end it in your favor.”  When I heard this, I thought of a song “Surrounded (Fight My Battles).”  As this is a praise and worship song, it is sometimes difficult to pin down who to credit for it, but I prefer the live version.  At any rate, it talks about how, as a Christian in a hostile culture and world, it sometimes looks like we are engulfed by our enemies.  This is what Jesus had to endure, having to face his own people who wanted to put Him to death.  In response, He invites us to sit down with Him, and put aside all enmity.  If only that could have happened here.  Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to let go of their ill designs.  I may not approve of violence, but at least it is good that triumphs in this tale.  For Jesus, and for Dan and Jane, I would say the battle definitely ends in their favor.

Aside from the historical silliness I mentioned in the summary, Jane Got a Gun is a violent movie.  This is something that needs to be emphasized.  There are also some scenes inside a brothel, but no overt nudity is shown.  As I said at the outset, it is as solid of a Western as they come.