There was a time when the walk-and-walk epic was a staple of prestige cinema. A ragtag group of misfits trekking through unforgiving terrain to accomplish an impossible mission. Films like The Guns of Navarone and Where Eagles Dare blended old-school adventure with scale and ambition. Somewhere along the way, the genre fell out of fashion. The Weight is a throwback to that tradition, and all the better for it.
Setting the film during the Great Depression, when private ownership of gold was heavily restricted, is a stroke of genius. It gives director Padraic McKinley a setting steeped in desperation. A time when the promise of wealth can be as dangerous as the journey itself.
Ethan Hawke plays Samuel Murphy, a recently incarcerated man desperate to reunite with his daughter before she becomes a ward of the state. The film establishes him as a loving father from the outset, making it easy to root for him. When prison warden Clancy (Russell Crowe) recognises Murphy’s resourcefulness, he offers him a chance at early release for transporting a shipment of gold bars to safety. The catch? He must evade government authorities, rival miners and opportunistic robbers along the way.
Joined by three fellow convicts and two men from the mining company on his journey. They also pick up Anna (Julia Jones), a runaway Indigenous woman who becomes an unexpected addition to the expedition.
Hawke has always been an actor capable of surprising audiences with his choices, and this is among his most physically demanding roles. He also knows when to step back and let his co-stars take the spotlight.
Allowing the ensemble to work as a cohesive unit. Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Austin Amelio and Avi Nash each give their fellow prisoners enough personality to stand apart. Amelio’s Rankin is effective as a sometime ally whose shifting loyalties make him both a liability and a valuable asset.
The film is less convincing in how it incorporates Anna into the group. Filmmakers have often struggled to give women a meaningful place in these all-male mission adventures, leaving them feeling like obligatory additions rather than essential participants. Personally, Irene Papas and Gia Scala’s characters made no sense as the resistance fighters in The Guns of Navarone.
Julia Jones brings resourcefulness to the role, but Anna’s presence never feels entirely necessary to the story. Apart from making a vague point about Native American history with training schools. Even this never really comes out in a convincing manner.
In spirit, The Weight feels like a distant cousin of The Wages of Fear and William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, films in which the journey itself becomes an ordeal. Shot in Bavaria, cinematographer Matteo Cocco excellently uses the lush greenery and rugged terrain to give the film an expansive, almost old-fashioned grandeur. The cast looks genuinely put through its paces, and the gruelling trek lends the adventure a tangible physicality.
But the very nature of a journey movie can also test the audience’s patience. Murphy’s desperate need to get out of prison and reunite with his daughter should give the story a sense of urgency. Instead, the leisurely pacing often works against that emotional ticking clock. For a film built around a perilous mission, the journey can feel frustratingly drawn out.
Crowe is also under-used here. His presence promises a more substantial confrontation with Hawke, but their limited time together leaves little room for the showdown audiences might expect. Anyone hoping for a rivalry in the vein of 3:10 to Yuma may come away disappointed.
Calling The Weight the type of film they no longer make also invites the familiar criticism that it’s a dad movie. A label that risks pigeonholing it. Yet its appeal lies precisely in its embrace of journeyman-like filmmaking. Rugged landscapes, a band of unlikely companions and a dangerous journey with everything at stake.
The film isn’t without its flaws. The pacing drags, and some character dynamics feel underdeveloped. Its central premise also occasionally promises more than it delivers. But as an old-school adventure and heist picture, The Weight has enough grit and solid performances to make the journey worthwhile.
While not reaching the heights of the classics it evokes, it’s a welcome reminder that this kind of cinema still has a place.
