MOVIE REVIEW: ‘The Kid’ is about confession and trusting the good guy with a gun

Lionsgate Movies released the film “The Kid.” According to the Lionsgate Movies YouTube channel:

In this thrilling Western, a young boy, Rio (Jake Schur), is forced to go on the run across the American Southwest in a desperate attempt to save his sister (Leila George) from his villainous uncle (Chris Pratt). Along the way, he encounters Sheriff Pat Garrett (Ethan Hawke), on the hunt for the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid (Dane DeHaan). Rio finds himself increasingly entwined in the lives of these two legendary figures as the cat and mouse game of Billy the Kid’s final year of life plays out. Ultimately Rio is forced to choose which type of man he is going to become, the outlaw or the man of valor, and will use this self-realization in a final act to save his family.

If you are looking for a historically accurate film about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a positive moral messages this film is filled with them.

Watch the trailer:

The kid in this film is Rio. It is Rio who kills his abusive father and escapes his abusive uncle in order to go on a quest to save his sister. This is a western to be sure. It is in the older style of the good guy with a gun versus the bad guys with guns. There are no special effects in this film. It is gritty down to earth good guy versus bad guy film making with a twist. The plot twist is about sin, confession and redemption.

But more importantly is is about confessing ones sins, redemption and in the end an armed good kid killing bad guys with a gun. While the film tries to be politically correct, at times portraying some of the marshals as cruel, it gets past this with a morally redeeming message.

Three times Marshal Pat Garrett asks Rio to confess, three times Rio refuses. This reminded me of the three times Saint Peter disowned Jesus in Matthew 26:34-35:

34“Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” 

In the end Rio confesses to Marshal Pat Garrett that he killed his abusive father. Garrett joins Rio in his quest. This confession leads to the freeing of his sister and a new beginning to both of their lives.

Our hope, at the end of the film, is that Rio, like Saint Peter, leads of life filled with valor, love and redemption. But more importantly that Rio and his sister go on to live a lives of repentance for one’s past sins. Prophetic indeed.

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