It starts with a hanging and ends in a shootout and follows the familiar tropes of the classic Western but THE UNHOLY TRINITY is no The Magnificent Seven. More like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
The Trinity in the title refers to a place name, a town in MONTANA circa 1888. In the moments before his execution, Isaac Broadway gives his estranged son Henry an impossible task – travel to Trinity and murder the Sheriff who framed him for a crime he didn’t commit.
Intent on fulfilling his promise, the gormless Henry travels to the remote town of Trinity, only to discover that the man he’s come to kill is already dead and a new lawman, Gabriel Dove, is wearing the badge.
After a tense stand-off, Henry is persuaded by Dove to get out of town, but before he can leave, an unexpected turn of events involving a prostitute and the town bully traps him in a web of retribution.
Like the shadow of the angel of death, a mysterious figure, cryptically named St. Christopher, aids and abets both sides of the conflict, a sassy sinister performance by Samuel L. Jackson.
St. Christopher appears to be Henry’s saviour but acts more like the devil in disguise. More sage and upstanding and truer protector of the callow youth is Sheriff Dove, played with silver fox civility by Pierce Brosnan.
Through encounters with St. Christopher, they discover that Isaac built the town of Trinity on a dark secret and a stash of stolen gold that St. Christopher is hell-bent on retrieving.
Written by Australian screenwriter, Lee Zachariah and directed by Richard Gray, THE UNHOLY TRINITY is a solid western, made all the more watchable by the silver screen star power of Brosnan and Jackson.
Brandon Lessard as young Henry is very good too as is Veronica Ferres as Dove’s wife Sarah.
Thomas Scott Stanton’s cinematography takes in the majestic beauty of Montana’s mountains and prairie and the score by Marco and Tristram Beltrani doffs musical caps to Morricone.
Another Australian connection, the film is exquisitely edited by Academy Award winning, Lee Smith.
THE UNHOLY TRINITY goes for gold and mines it pretty good.
