Lord almighty, I don't know what this filmmaker was trying to accomplish with this thing, but it was so incredibly boring. I was hoping this was going to be more interesting, but the pace was excruciatingly slow and the story not at all compelling. There was nothing in the way of performances to get excited about and the production value looked really chintzy. Doing a period piece in general is challenging enough, but doing a Western without stars or a seasoned director is a tall order certainly not filled by this effort. Unfortunately there is nothing I can recommend about Echoes of War other than it should be avoided if you value your time. Truly one of the dullest Westerns, if not films, I've ever seen. Zzz...

There ought to be a law. Seriously. This is raunchy trash, for those of you who like that kind of garbage. If you decide to watch, be prepared to be repulsed. Question: why do producers keep throwing their money at directors and their poorly written and scripted films that won't make any money in any venue? Avoid this one, folks. There are far better ones out there.

It's no masterpiece. How COULD it be, with a budget that must have been barely enough to feed the two disenfranchised ex Confederate families in Texas? One family traps animals; the other, disenfranchised by the Civil War, the McCluskeys, steals some of the animals and trespasses on the other's property.

The conflict is intensified by a Romeo/Juliet romance between a slightly reptilian McCluskey boy and the pretty blond daughter of the other family. James Badge Dale returns from the war to join the offended family, figures things out, is unable to control the violent impulses he's acquired, and it leads to bloodshed.

No masterpiece, no, but a fine piece of low-budget and deliberately paced film making, with no simple crap about evil people and good people. That is, of course the formerly rich family shouldn't steal from their neighbors. But -- should they all be slaughtered, including the helpless old matriarch, for having done so? Or even for having accidentally shot and killed a young son of their adversaries? Is it up to one man to make that judgment?

The dialog is limited and sometimes elliptical. (Thanks, Terence Malick.) I like William Forsythe, my co-star in the unforgettable, umm, what was it again? Yes, "Weeds." He doesn't get to do much but scowl. Maika Monroe is the pretty daughter, Abigail. That beastly name alone deserves a prize for originality -- no Mary Jo, no Scarlett, no Corey Sue, no Ariadne, no Kimmy, just plain old Abigail, a dusty old name for the wife of a dusty old president. James Badge Dale does a phenomenal job, really. His features always seem to be broadcasting one or another variation of "confused."

Two other things. One is that the violence is subdued and there's a whole bathtub full of it at the end. Another is that the musical score by Hanan Townshend seems to consist of one extended, ominous chord. It fits the story, in which no one seems to be having much of a good time except when Abigail and her forbidden boy friend are rooting around on the pebbly shore of a small creek.

I don't know why there are so many insults directed at it.