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What You Need To Know:
Somewhere in COWBOYS & ALIENS, there is a great movie. It has some very poignant scenes and very Christian scenes, but also some very pagan scenes. It also has romance, science fiction, western, and other genres competing for attention. Therefore, by the end, or at least the four endings, the movie loses its way. Sadly, it also has a lot of foul language and an Indian drug ceremony. Thus, COWBOYS & ALIENS warrants an extreme caution and only three stars overall.
HEADLINE: ** Mixed Genres, Mixed Messages **
Title: COWBOYS & ALIENS
Quality: * * * Acceptability: -2
SUBTITLES: None
WARNING CODES:
Language: LLL
Violence: VV
Sex: S
Nudity: NN
RATING: PG-13
RELEASE: July 29, 2011
TIME: 118 minutes
STARRING: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Paul Dano, Noah Ringer, Keith Carradine, Clancy Brown
DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau
PRODUCERS: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau, Denis L. Stewart, Bobby Cohen, Randy Greenberg, Ryan Kavanaugh
WRITER: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL BY: Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures/Comcast
CONTENT: (CC, PaPa, FR, H, LLL, VV, S, NN, A, DD, M) Strong overt Christian story of absolution and repentance, muddied by some New Age pagan philosophy, and pagan religion and false Arminian comments on salvation, plus some humanist comments; 37 obscenities, four profanities and several moments of relieving oneself; very intense action violence with people getting shot, stabbed, aliens dissecting people, alien/human battles, explosions, human/human battles, punching, alien eats man, etc.; suggested sex and one passionate kiss between human and alien disguised as human; upper male nudity, full rear female nudity; alcohol use; smoking and Indian drug-induced ceremony to revive hero’s memories; and, alien in human form resurrects herself after being burned on a fire, man atones for his sins by doing good deeds.
GENRE: Science Fiction/Western
INTENDED AUDIENCE: Teenagers and adults
REVIEWER: Dr. Ted Baehr
REVIEW: COWBOYS & ALIENS suffers from too much. It has some very poignant scenes, some very Christian scenes, some very pagan scenes, some very humanist scenes. It has romance, science fiction, western, and other genres competing for attention. Therefore, by the end, or at least the four endings, the movie loses its way.
The movie opens with a wounded cowboy waking up in the middle of the desert with a strange science fiction bracelet device on his left arm. Three bounty hunters ride up with fly-infested Indian scalps hanging from their saddles. As they try to corner the cowboy, he defeats each one of them with ultra-violence. Taking their clothes and horses, he heads toward the desolate town of Absolution. He sneaks into the church, washes his face in the baptismal basin and then is confronted by the gun-toting preacher. The preacher, who later in the movie says some Christian things, opens with a very un-Christian statement that it has nothing to do with God’s plan that the cowboy is wounded but with his own choices. The cowboy, however, doesn’t remember anything about his life or choices.
After being sewn up, the cowboy heads to town, only to find the son of the richest cattleman in the neighborhood, Colonel Donner, shooting up the saloon. Eventually, the boy wounds a marshal or deputy and gets hauled off to jail. Donner’s workman heads back to tell Donner, played by Harrison Ford.
At his ranch, Donner is torturing one of the ranch hands because he thinks the ranch hand burned up his cattle. Actually, it was an alien spaceship. Donner is drawing and quartering the ranch hand between two horses. Informed about his son’s plight, he cuts one of the horses loose, and the other horse drags off the ranch hand. Donner heads back to town with all his ranch hands to force the sheriff to release his son.
Meanwhile, the cowboy with no name looks exactly like a wanted poster of a stagecoach robber named Jake. So, after a scuffle, the sheriff arrests him. As Donner’s son and Jake are being hauled off to trial in the paddy wagon, aliens attack the town. Jake escapes and joins up with a beautiful, armed woman, Ella, played by Olivia Wilde. It turns out Jake’s bracelet is a sophisticated ray gun. He fights off some of the aliens, who are lassoing people and taking them on their spaceships.
Jake starts tracking one of the wounded aliens, followed by Col. Donner, who’s tracking his son taken by the aliens with the sheriff. As he tracks the alien, Jake starts to get glimpses of his past.
Ella turns out to be an alien from another planet than the attack aliens. She’s disguised as a beautiful woman so she can protect Earth from the invading aliens. A third of the way into the movie, the instigating moment occurs, which should have opened the movie, and Ella explains the jeopardy: The aliens want gold; and, they are also capturing the humans to dissect them to find out their weaknesses.
Jake comes across his previous gang, fights with them and leaves. Donner’s party and Jake come across the Indians. Ella is mortally wounded in an alien attack, but when she’s thrown on the funeral pyre by the Indians, she resurrects herself.
Donner, the Indians, Jake, and his gang join together to fight the aliens. The Indians put Jake through a drug ceremony to recover his memory. He remembers the aliens were dissecting his beloved, and he escaped, wounding an alien and taking his bracelet weapon. Eventually, of course, there’s the classic climactic battle with the aliens.
Somewhere in COWBOYS & ALIENS is a great movie. Regrettably, nobody took the time to find it in the story. The basic story is about Jake the outlaw repenting and being absolved of his sins. The alien woman, Ella, is the Christ figure who came to Earth dressed as a human being in order to die and save the humans. The preacher makes one very stupid theological remark, but also makes a lot of brilliant remarks, such as you have to recognize God’s presence, repent and act on it. In fact, the movie has a lot of overt and covert Christian content. Sadly, it also has a lot of foul language, the Indian drug ceremony, some humanist musings from Harrison Ford’s character, and a potpourri of other philosophies and beliefs.
Some of the audience was deeply disappointed by COWBOYS & ALIENS, even though there were some good aspects of the story, including some terrific acting and some poignant moments. In the final analysis, COWBOYS & ALIENS warrants an extreme caution. There are probably better movies to spend your hard-earned dollars on at the box office.
Please address your comments to:
Brian L. Roberts, Chairman/CEO/President, Comcast Corp.
Stephen Burke, CEO, NBC Universal
Ron Meyer, President/COO, Universal Studios
Adam Fogelson, Chairman, Universal Pictures
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608-1085
Phone: (818) 777-1000
Web Page: www.universalstudios.com
SUMMARY: COWBOYS & ALIENS stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford as two cowboys who lead a fight against invading aliens who want gold. Despite an overt Christian worldview, COWBOYS & ALIENS loses its way with too many plots, too much foul language, an Indian drug ceremony, and some New Age, pagan philosophy.
IN BRIEF:
COWBOYS & ALIENS stars Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, as a cowboy who loses his memory after being captured by aliens and escaping. The aliens start attacking a town where the cowboy ends up, and he helps fight them off. Accompanied by a beautiful woman named Ella, who knows more than she’s telling, he starts tracking a wounded alien. Eventually, he teams up with the local cattle baron, played by Harrison Ford, Jake’s former gang of outlaws, and the local Indians to fight the aliens. Ella turns out to be an alien from a different planet who’s taken human form to protect Earth. Everything leads to a final climactic battle.
Somewhere in COWBOYS & ALIENS, there is a great movie. It has some very poignant scenes and very Christian scenes, but also some very pagan scenes. It also has romance, science fiction, western, and other genres competing for attention. Therefore, by the end, or at least the four endings, the movie loses its way. Sadly, it also has a lot of foul language and an Indian drug ceremony. Thus, COWBOYS & ALIENS warrants an extreme caution and only three stars overall.
Content:
(CCC, BB, PaPa, FR, H, LLL, VV, S, NN, A, DD, M) Very strong overt Christian story of absolution and repentance, with strong moral elements, slightly muddied by some New Age pagan philosophy, and pagan religion and false Arminian comments on salvation, plus some humanist comments; 37 obscenities, four profanities and several moments of relieving oneself; very intense action violence with people getting shot, stabbed, aliens dissecting people, alien/human battles, explosions, human/human battles, punching, alien eats man, etc.; suggested sex and one passionate kiss between human and alien disguised as human; upper male nudity, full rear female nudity; alcohol use; smoking and Indian drug-induced ceremony to revive hero’s memories; and, alien in human form resurrects herself after being burned on a fire, man atones for his sins by doing good deeds.
More Detail:
COWBOYS & ALIENS suffers from too much. It has some very poignant scenes, some very Christian scenes, some very pagan scenes, some very humanist scenes. It has romance, science fiction, western, and other genres competing for attention. Therefore, by the end, or at least the four endings, the movie loses its way.
The movie opens with a wounded cowboy waking up in the middle of the desert with a strange science fiction bracelet device on his left arm. Three bounty hunters ride up with fly-infested Indian scalps hanging from their saddles. As they try to corner the cowboy, he defeats each one of them with ultra-violence. Taking their clothes and horses, he heads toward the desolate town of Absolution. He sneaks into the church, washes his face in the baptismal basin and then is confronted by the gun-toting preacher. The preacher, who later in the movie says some Christian things, opens with a very un-Christian statement that it has nothing to do with God’s plan that the cowboy is wounded but with his own choices. The cowboy, however, doesn’t remember anything about his life or choices.
After being sewn up, the cowboy heads to town, only to find the son of the richest cattleman in the neighborhood, Colonel Donner, shooting up the saloon. Eventually, the boy wounds a marshal or deputy and gets hauled off to jail. Donner’s workman heads back to tell Donner, played by Harrison Ford.
At his ranch, Donner is torturing one of the ranch hands because he thinks the ranch hand burned up his cattle. Actually, it was an alien spaceship. Donner is drawing and quartering the ranch hand between two horses. Informed about his son’s plight, he cuts one of the horses loose, and the other horse drags off the ranch hand. Donner heads back to town with all his ranch hands to force the sheriff to release his son.
Meanwhile, the cowboy with no name looks exactly like a wanted poster of a stagecoach robber named Jake. So, after a scuffle, the sheriff arrests him. As Donner’s son and Jake are being hauled off to trial in the paddy wagon, aliens attack the town. Jake escapes and joins up with a beautiful, armed woman, Ella, played by Olivia Wilde. It turns out Jake’s bracelet is a sophisticated ray gun. He fights off some of the aliens, who are lassoing people and taking them on their spaceships.
Jake starts tracking one of the wounded aliens, followed by Col. Donner, who’s tracking his son taken by the aliens with the sheriff. As he tracks the alien, Jake starts to get glimpses of his past.
Ella turns out to be an alien from another planet than the attack aliens. She’s disguised as a beautiful woman so she can protect Earth from the invading aliens. A third of the way into the movie, the instigating moment occurs, which should have opened the movie, and Ella explains the jeopardy: The aliens want gold; and, they are also capturing the humans to dissect them to find out their weaknesses.
Jake comes across his previous gang, fights with them and leaves. Donner’s party and Jake come across the Indians. Ella is mortally wounded in an alien attack, but when she’s thrown on the funeral pyre by the Indians, she resurrects herself.
Donner, the Indians, Jake, and his gang join together to fight the aliens. The Indians put Jake through a drug ceremony to recover his memory. He remembers the aliens were dissecting his beloved, and he escaped, wounding an alien and taking his bracelet weapon. Eventually, of course, there’s the classic climactic battle with the aliens.
Somewhere in COWBOYS & ALIENS is a great movie. Regrettably, nobody took the time to find it in the story. The basic story is about Jake the outlaw repenting and being absolved of his sins. The alien woman, Ella, is the Christ figure who came to Earth dressed as a human being in order to die and save the humans. The preacher makes one very stupid theological remark, but also makes a lot of brilliant remarks, such as you have to recognize God’s presence, repent and act on it. In fact, the movie has a lot of overt and covert Christian content. Sadly, it also has a lot of foul language, the Indian drug ceremony, some humanist musings from Harrison Ford’s character, and a potpourri of other philosophies and beliefs.
Some of the audience was deeply disappointed by COWBOYS & ALIENS, even though there were some good aspects of the story, including some terrific acting and some poignant moments. In the final analysis, COWBOYS & ALIENS warrants an extreme caution. There are probably better movies to spend your hard-earned dollars on at the box office.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.
What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.
You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.
Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.
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