Movie Review: 'The Weight' Brings '70s Ethos to Great Depression-Set Survival Story

We Don’t Get Movies Like The Weight Much Anymore

Director Padraic McKinley’s ‘The Weight,’ starring Ethan Hawke, is the kind of exciting, atmospheric period drama we don’t get much of anymore.

‘The Weight’ Isn’t a Perfect Homage to 1970s Tough-Guy Movies. But It’s Close

Ethan Hawke gets his grizzled Charles Bronson on in this gritty survivalist tale involving a convict, some gold, and an angry Mother Nature.

Movie review: 'The Weight' brings '70s ethos to Great Depression-set survival story

Somewhere in the overlap between William Friedkin’s 1977 action thriller “Sorcerer” and Kelly Reichardt’s 2020 Pacific Northwest pioneer indie “First Cow” lies Padraic McKinley’s directorial debut “The Weight.”

Ethan Hawke comfortably shoulders The Weight of a throwback '70s-style adventure

Deep in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest in 1933, a group of men trek through dangerous terrain while carrying hefty packs of stolen gold, forced into transporting it for the profit of others. Beyond the environment, they face danger both from the gun-wielding thugs assigned to monitor them, ensuring they won’t abscond with the fortune, and from the equally lethal assailants lurking behind the trees, who know what they hold and aim to tak…

The Weight Review: Ethan Hawke Period Thriller Has Moments Of Tense Brilliance

The Weight is a well-crafted and well-acted period thriller that generates a high level of dramatic tension, even if it can't totally sustain it.