movie review the last manhunt

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Monkey Man Link to Monkey Man
• The First Omen Link to The First Omen
• The Beast Link to The Beast

New TV Tonight

• Chucky: Season 3
• Mr Bates vs The Post Office: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Franklin: Season 1
• Dora: Season 1
• Good Times: Season 1
• Beacon 23: Season 2

Most Popular TV on RT

• Ripley: Season 1
• Sugar: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• A Gentleman in Moscow: Season 1
• We Were the Lucky Ones: Season 1
• Parasyte: The Grey: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• Manhunt: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Ripley Link to Ripley
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

100 Best Free Movies on YouTube (April 2024)

Pedro Pascal Movies and Series Ranked by Tomatometer

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

Awards Tour

TV Premiere Dates 2024

New Movies & TV Shows Streaming in April 2024: What To Watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, and More

• Trending on RT
• Play Movie Trivia
• Best New Movies
• New On Streaming

The Last Manhunt

2022, Western/Action, 1h 43m

You might also like

Where to watch the last manhunt.

Rent The Last Manhunt on Vudu, Apple TV, Prime Video, or buy it on Vudu, Apple TV, Prime Video.

Rate And Review

Super Reviewer

Rate this movie

Oof, that was Rotten.

Meh, it passed the time.

It’s good – I’d recommend it.

So Fresh: Absolute Must See!

What did you think of the movie? (optional)

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

Step 2 of 2

How did you buy your ticket?

Let's get your review verified..

AMCTheatres.com or AMC App New

Cinemark Coming Soon

We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future.

Regal Coming Soon

Theater box office or somewhere else

By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie.

You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket.

The last manhunt videos, the last manhunt   photos.

In 1909 Willie Boy and his love, Carlota, go on the run after he accidentally shoots her father in a confrontation gone terribly wrong. With President Taft coming to the area, the local sheriff leads two Native American trackers to hunt them down.

Rating: R (Some Violence and Language)

Genre: Western, Action

Original Language: English

Director: Christian Camargo

Producer: Martin Kistler , Eric Laciste

Writer: Thomas Pa'a Sibbett , Jason Momoa

Release Date (Theaters): Nov 18, 2022  limited

Release Date (Streaming): Nov 18, 2022

Runtime: 1h 43m

Distributor: Saban Films

Production Co: On The Roam

Cast & Crew

Jason Momoa

Martin Sensmeier

Mainei Kinimaka

Mojean Aria

Charlie Brumbly

Christian Camargo

Sheriff Wilson

Tantoo Cardinal

Justin Campbell

Lily Gladstone

Zahn McClarnon

William Johnson

Brandon Oakes

Amy Seimetz

Jamie Sives

Raoul Max Trujillo

Wade Williams

Thomas Pa'a Sibbett

Screenwriter

Martin Kistler

Eric Laciste

Jeanie Buss

Executive Producer

Dan Clifton

Stacy Kennedy

Brian Andrew Mendoza

Jason Dopko

Film Editing

Charlotte Royer

Production Design

Monica Mayorga

Art Director

Amelia Steely

Set Decoration

Camille Benda

Costume Design

John Papsidera

Critic Reviews for The Last Manhunt

Audience reviews for the last manhunt.

There are no featured audience reviews for The Last Manhunt at this time.

Movie & TV guides

Play Daily Tomato Movie Trivia

Discover What to Watch

Rotten Tomatoes Podcasts

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Get the app
• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

The last manhunt, common sense media reviewers.

Violent, visually rich Western tackles prejudice, hypocrisy.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Effectively demonstrates how prejudice and misinfo

Movie paints its star-crossed lovers as the only i

Based on the oral history of the Chemehuevi tribe

Guns and shooting. Threatening with guns. Characte

Kissing and romance (snuggling, nuzzling).

Uses of "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "witch's t-t,"

A character appears to be passed-out drunk; vomiti

Parents need to know that The Last Manhunt is a Western based on the true story of Willie Boy (Martin Sensmeier), a Chemehuevi desert runner involved in a forbidden romance, who, after an accidental killing, makes a run for it. It's a bit slow, but it's visually rich, well-acted, and timely. Violence includes…

Positive Messages

Effectively demonstrates how prejudice and misinformation are interlinked.

Positive Role Models

Movie paints its star-crossed lovers as the only inherently good characters in this world; they only want peace and to be left alone. It's hard to argue for anyone else as a role model. Willie Boy is troublesome; he's responsible for an accidental death and resorts to violence when cornered. He leaves the movie as a victim -- and a mystery for the history books to sort out.

Diverse Representations

Based on the oral history of the Chemehuevi tribe and provides equal weight to both White and Native American characters -- but you could argue that the White characters are more nuanced than the Native Americans. The White characters are also more evil, and the Native Americans are seen as superior and less prone to prejudice. Characters who already hate Native Americans are predisposed to believe that they're capable of bad things, even if those things aren't true. And the movie demonstrates that there are evil forces only too happy to exploit this for profit, including publishers of slanted, prejudiced news.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Guns and shooting. Threatening with guns. Characters are shot and killed. Horses shot, some to be put out of their misery. Blood spurts, bloody wounds. Character shot in head. Punching. Fighting, throwing man onto ground. Character bit by rattlesnake. Cut hand. Threats. Mentions of suicide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Uses of "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "witch's t-t," "a--hole," "goddamn," "for Christ's sake," "son of a bitch," "bastard," "damn," "hell," "dickin' around," "jerk off," "stupid," "shut up." "Jesus" used as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A character appears to be passed-out drunk; vomiting. His drinking is referred to again in dialogue. Background smoking. Character gets an injection of painkillers in the hospital.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Last Manhunt is a Western based on the true story of Willie Boy ( Martin Sensmeier ), a Chemehuevi desert runner involved in a forbidden romance, who, after an accidental killing, makes a run for it. It's a bit slow, but it's visually rich, well-acted, and timely. Violence includes guns and shooting, deaths of people and animals (horses), blood spurts, bloody wounds, fighting, punching, a rattlesnake bite, and more. Expect occasional uses of "f--k," "s--t," "son of a bitch," "goddamn," and more. A couple briefly kiss, cuddle, and caress each other. A woman has her period, and a trickle of blood is visible on her leg. A character is depicted as a hard drinker; he's seen passed out and vomits upon awakening. There's background smoking, and a character gets an injection of painkillers in the hospital. Jason Momoa , who co-wrote the story and co-produced, is heavily featured in the advertising materials but appears in only a few scenes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

In THE LAST MANHUNT, it's 1909 in California -- the waning days of the Wild West. Desert runner Willie Boy ( Martin Sensmeier ) falls in love with Carlota (Mainei Kinimaka) of the Chemehuevi tribe, although the romance is strictly forbidden by her father, the chief ( Zahn McClarnon ). After a horrible accident resulting in a death, Willie Boy and Carlota escape into the desert, where Willie Boy's skills can keep them alive. Since the killing occurred outside Chemehuevi territory, Sheriff Wilson ( Christian Camargo ) assembles a posse to find Willie Boy and bring him to justice. Unfortunately, the Chemehuevi people go out on their own with the intention of killing Willie Boy. And the sheriff's scheming right-hand man, Ben ( Jamie Sives ), and an unethical newspaperman ( Mojean Aria ) conspire to do Willie Boy even more harm. Can Willie Boy survive?

Is It Any Good?

Even if its languid, loping storytelling lacks urgency, this small-scale, well-acted Western uses its rich, pictorial visual scheme to update the Willie Boy story in interesting, relevant ways. Jason Momoa spearheaded this project, a true story that was previously filmed as Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here in 1969. Momoa serves as executive producer and co-writer, as well as appearing in a few scenes. He also recruited his co-stars from the Apple TV+ series See , casting Mainei Kinimaka as Carlota and Christian Camargo as the sheriff. Camargo also directs, bringing a strong sense of style to The Last Manhunt. It almost feels like a mini- Terrence Malick effort, shot in a narrow aspect ratio and decorated with striking tracking shots and gorgeous "magic hour" images. (The movie's biggest flaw is easily its all-too-generic title.)

Willie Boy, who is a victim of circumstance and wrongly accused of murder, and Carlota are less fully fleshed out characters than they are symbolic. They seem to mostly serve the purpose of demonstrating the evils of prejudice. The White characters, meanwhile, are fatally flawed, rather than being heroes. Every character is clouded by something here, whether it be regret, grief, revenge, prejudice, or merely a dark twist of fate. The biggest change to the story from previous iterations is the addition of the newspaperman, who knows that fear sells papers and is not only willing but eager to flat-out lie about Willie Boy in his stories. He's an obvious forerunner to today's barrage of angry, politically slanted commentary disguising itself as news, and the movie's use of racism to flip Willie Boy into a creature to be feared and hated hits home. The Last Manhunt leaves off with a striking image, a shocking hypocrisy that's sure to remain seared in your memory.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about The Last Manhunt 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How does the movie depict drinking and smoking ? Why does the sheriff drink so much? Are there consequences for drinking or smoking? Why does that matter?

How is the newspaperman character relevant to today, if at all? Why does fear, as the character asserts, sell newspapers?

In what ways does the movie depict prejudice?

Does the movie offer positive diverse representation? Why is that important?

Movie Details

• In theaters : November 18, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : November 18, 2022
• Cast : Martin Sensmeier , Mainei Kinimaka , Jason Momoa
• Director : Christian Camargo
• Inclusion Information : Indigenous actors, Female actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors
• Studio : Saban Films
• Genre : Western
• Run time : 104 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : some violence and language
• Last updated : January 25, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

The Power of the Dog

The Harder They Fall

In a Valley of Violence

The Homesman

Woman Walks Ahead

News of the World

Westerns for kids and teens, best action movies for kids.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

Movie Review – The Last Manhunt (2022)

November 17, 2022 by Robert Kojder

The Last Manhunt . 2022

Directed by Christian Camargo. Starring Jason Momoa, Martin Sensmeier, Mainei Kinimaka, Lily Gladstone, Zahn McClarnon, Tantoo Cardinal, Raoul Max Trujillo, Brandon Oakes, Amy Seimetz, Mojean Aria, Christian Camargo, Jamie Sives, Justin Campbell, Tim Delano, and Charlie Brumbly.

Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. Due to her father’s refusal to give his blessing to the pair and the conflict between the two families, a fatal incident forces the young couple to flee the only place they know as home. In this tragic tale of love, loss, and realization, Willie Boy and Carlota fight to persevere even with all odds against them.

Director Christian Camargo (using a screenplay from Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, which is conceptualized alongside Jason Momoa, who is technically a co-star but more of a glorified cameo presence in an attempt to drum up more interest in the film) seems to think that telling a true story is enough and that the character details, motivations, and engagement will sort itself out. While watching The Last Manhunt , at no point is one compelled to care what happens to these lovers on the run and what is regarded as the last great manhunt of the Wild West.

It is apparent that these filmmakers don’t have much confidence in their plot, referring to the lovers in every synopsis as having not received a blessing from the Chemehuevi tribe leader for them to be together. Notorious outlaw Willie Boy (Martin Sensmeier) and 16-year-old Carlotta (Mainei Kinimaka) happen to be fifth cousins, so it’s not necessarily surprising that no one approves, regardless of how much they resist and sneak off. Nevertheless, this is a film (and Game of Thrones is arguably more popular than ever), so of course, it is not impossible to get behind these characters in this relationship.

There’s just no intriguing or satisfying approach to illuminating who these characters are worldwide they are in love. Christian Camargo seems to be under the impression that showing two characters embracing (with admittedly believable passion) on-location and utilizing natural lighting with authentic music is all it takes to sell viewers on a story. And maybe in some cases it is, but Christian Camargo is also no Terrence Malick. So credit cinematographer J.P. Alvarez and the score from Justin Small and Ohad Benchetrit as the only noteworthy elements here.

It’s not long before a freak accident sets Willie Boy and Carlotta on the run, mostly just holding one another and appreciating nature whenever they are on screen. Meanwhile, local law enforcement and other tribe members seek different forms of justice, with Christian Camargo acting in the film as Sheriff Wilson, trying to play up a nuanced moral crisis and somewhat succeeding.

The filmmakers take a slow-burn approach to telling a story about revenge, fear-mongering, and consequences. One aspect involves local journalists spinning reality for their benefit (it is mentioned that William Taft will be coming into town, so it is of great importance for everyone to deal with this situation as swiftly as possible, although their urgency is never felt), eventually leading to a darkly satisfying payoff.

Before that, The Last Manhunt offers up many characters doing almost nothing. Even when danger strikes Willie Boy and Carlotta, it feels uneventful and dull. The proceedings eventually devolve into a shoot-out and bloodshed, which is moderately thrilling but more so for the setting and views. The film was clearly made with well-meaning intentions and impressionable authenticity, but there’s not a single element emotionally to latch onto. That’s a shame when a white journalist intentionally spreading false narratives is the only interesting part of a story about romantic cousins on the run from vengeful lawmen and Native American trackers.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★  / Movie: ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check  here  for new reviews, follow my  Twitter  or  Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

The Most Obscure and Underrated Slasher Movies of the 1980s

Die Hard on a Shoestring: The Low Budget Die Hard Clones

The B-Movie Queens

Zack Snyder’s Watchmen at 15: An ambitious adaptation of a darkly complex comic book classic

The Return of the Moderate Budget Action Movie?

The Essential Exorcism Movies of the 21st Century

Not for the Faint of Heart: The Most Shocking Movies of All Time

The Best Retro 2000 AD Video Games

Ten Action Sequels The World Needs To See

Hilarious 1980s Comedy Movies That Deserve a Sequel

• Comic Books
• Video Games
• Toys & Collectibles
• Articles and Opinions
• About Flickering Myth
• Write for Flickering Myth
• Advertise on Flickering Myth
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy

The Last Manhunt

Where to Watch

Martin Sensmeier (Willie Boy) Mainei Kinimaka (Carlotta) Zahn McClarnon (William Johnson) Lily Gladstone (Maria) Raoul Max Trujillo (Hyde) Brandon Oakes (Segundo) Christian Camargo (Sheriff Wilson) Wade Williams (Reche) Jamie Sives (Ben) Justin Campbell (Toutain)

Christian Camargo

Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. A fatal incident forces the young couple to flee the only place they know as home.

Recommendations

More about The Last Manhunt

The Last Manhunt corrects history, but needs more to make it compelling

Jason Momoa barely registers as a presence in this meandering thriller, while director Christian Camargo doesn't …

Advertisement

Jason Momoa’s ‘The Last Manhunt’ Redefines Westerns With Indigenous Perspective

• Beta Film Unveils MipTV Lineup, Trailer for Gritty New Medical Drama ‘KRANK Berlin’ (EXCLUSIVE) 2 days ago
• CinéFrance, Yoosonn Entertainment, Alef One Unveil French-Taiwanese Co-Productions at Series Mania as CNC, TAICCA Boost Cooperation 2 weeks ago
• Channel 4 Acquires ‘After the Party’ From ITV Studios, Disney+ Starts Production on ‘Vienna Game’ – Series Mania Bulletin 3 weeks ago

In revisiting the tale of fugitive lovers on the run in California’s High Desert, the makers of “The Last Manhunt” sought to correct a story that has remained very much alive for the indigenous Chemehuevi people of the region for more than 100 years.

Produced by Jason Momoa ’s On the Roam and directed by Christian Camargo from a script by Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, “The Last Manhunt” opens this year’s inaugural Pioneertown International Film Festival, which takes place May 27-29. The historic movie-set town, home to the popular Pappy & Harriet’s music club, is located near the actual site of the events that transpired in 1909 in and around Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park.

It was there that Willie Boy met and fell in love with Carlota, the daughter of local tribal chief William Mike. After a confrontation that ends in the death of her father, Willie Boy and Carlota flee into the desert, pursued by a posse.

Momoa heard the tale while in the Joshua Tree area, where he also owns a home. In developing the project, Momoa and Sibbet, who co-wrote the story, met with leaders of the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians hoping to win their trust and consent. There was some apprehension since prominent tribal members are direct descendants of Carlota’s family, Sibbet notes.

Unlike previous versions, Momoa and Sibbett, both Native Hawaiians, sought to explore the story from an indigenous point of view, to convey it according to the Chemehuevi’s oral account of what happened. “That was one thing we felt very strongly about,” says On the Roam producer Martin Kistler. It was therefore necessary to involve the Native community “to make sure their voices are heard in retelling, or correcting, the history.”

In his 1969 film, “Tell Them Willie Boy is Here,” starring Robert Redford, Robert Blake and Katharine Ross, director Abraham Polonsky largely focused on Redford’s character, the lawman, and his pursuit of a wanted outlaw.

“The Last Manhunt” tells a much broader story.

“This is a living story for the Chemehuevi people,” says Sibbett. “It has a special place for them. So we can honor their oral traditions by just listening to them and really think about how the story can make an impact.”

“Looking at it from a native perspective, you get a much fuller story and just like any good story, it’s complicated. That’s what we found that was interesting.”

Indeed, Sibbett describes it as a “classic tale of love and tragedy” — with “a very similar arc to that of Eurydice and Orpheus.”

The truth of what happened, however, hasn’t been told, Sibbett adds. “The story has been preserved in all the wrong ways. It was preserved in newspapers that were completely slanted; it was preserved in other people’s accounts.” Burdened by the fear-mongering media reports of the time, and the tragic impact the events had on the Twenty-Nine Palms Band, the story has remained permeated with darkness.

“It really felt like a way for us to be able to set the spirits free, give them fresh air, just let Carlota and Willie Boy’s story be remembered in a different way,” says Sibbett.

Momoa, who stars with Camargo in the Apple TV Plus series “See,” originally planned to direct “The Last Manhunt,” with Camargo, who also lives in Joshua Tree, set to play the sheriff. When Momoa’s busy schedule prevented that, he asked Camargo to additionally take over as director. “Jason felt very passionate about this project and he and I both have a real affinity for Joshua Tree, this area,” Camargo says.

The film has been “an opportunity to correct the narrative,” Camargo adds. “If you have a chance to correct a narrative, you have to take that chance. You have to try, and especially on such a significant level as this story is to the Native community.”

Camargo says there was “an energy that I felt just being around this story that was very mercurial, very tempestuous, very angry, that it hasn’t been told right, or at least tried to be told right; so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The film features a large Native American cast, including Martin Sensmeier (“The Magnificent Seven”) as Willie Boy; Mainei Kinimaka (“See”) as Carlota; and Lily Gladstone (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) and Zahn McClarnon (“Reservation Dogs”) as Carlota’s parents. Momoa also appears in the film.

Shooting on location in Joshua Tree was essential for Camargo. The unique landscape is an essential character in the story “because it’s so sculptural and monumental around here — and that becomes a sort of adversary at times, and sometimes a collaborator, as support. So the land for me was very necessary.”

While it has all the trappings of a classic Western, Camargo says it’s not an action pic but rather “a simple Romeo and Juliet story” and a paean to the land and its people.

“This is really an arthouse Western that Jason wanted to make in a lyrical, poetic way – a reflection of this narrative and the desert and the home he loves so much, so it’s as much a love story between these two people as it is a love story for Jason and myself about the land itself.”

Those qualities made the film the ideal opener for the Pioneertown festival.

“The mission of the Pioneertown Int’l Film Festival is that we aim to preserve, and to re-engage, the history and the stories of the frontier, whether it be through cinema, art or music,” says festival founder and filmmaker Julian T. Pinder. “We’re not only proud to premiere ‘The Last Manhunt’ on the merits of it being a great film, but we also feel that the re-imagining of the Western genre from an Indigenous perspective is a very profound and powerful step in the right direction.”

Momoa and Sibbett are taking a similar approach on their upcoming Apple series “ Chief of War ,” about the history of Hawaii from the point of view of its Indigenous people.

More From Our Brands

‘snl’: watch raye perform ‘escapism,’ ‘worth it’, putter’s paradise: the $39 million pebble beach estate wants to help you sharpen your short game, alabama, uconn share analytical mindset—and even used same firm, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, snl video: matt damon, paul rudd, ryan gosling and more welcome kristen wiig to the five-timers club, verify it's you, please log in.

• Art & Culture
• Entertainment
• Home & Ranch
• Food & Drink
• Real Estate
• C&I Shop

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Subscribe to our Free Weekly Newsletter

Subscribe Today and Save.

• Get a Subscription
• Give as Gift
• Manage your Subscription

Keep in Touch

Correcting The Record: The Last Manhunt Takes Another Look At The Willie Boy Story

The fact-based western drama screens this weekend at the pioneertown international film festival before opening in theaters later this year..

In 1969, writer-director Abraham Polonsky gave us Tell Them Willie Boy is Here , a fact-based film about the 1909 manhunt for Willie Boy (played by Robert Blake), a Paiute Indian ex-convict, and his Chemehuevi sweetheart (Katharine Ross), who took flight into the Mojave Desert after Willie Boy killed her father in self-defense, and were pursued by a posse led by Deputy Sheriff Christopher “Coop” Cooper (Robert Redford).

And now, as legendary radio broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say, here’s the rest of the story.

The Last Manhunt , an independently produced western co-written by executive producer Jason Momoa ( Aquaman ), featuring Native American actors Martin Sensmeier ( The Magnificent Seven ) and Mainei Kinimaka (Apple TV’s See ) in the roles originally played by Blake and Ross, offers a revisionist account of the same 1909 events that occurred in and around Twentynine Palms and Joshua Tree National Park in California. Directed by Christian Camargo, who co-stars as the character originally played by Redford, the film co-stars Zahn McClarnon ( Longmire , The Son ) as William Mike, the ill-fated father of Carlotta, Willie Boy’s lover; and Lily Gladstone ( First Cow , Killers of the Flower Moon ) as Carlota’s mother. Raoul Trujillo ( Apocalypto ), Brandon Oakes (pictured above between Gladstone, far left, and Kinimaka and McClarnon), Raoul Max Trujillo ( Sicario , Sicario: Day of the Soldado ) and Tantoo Cardinal ( Dances with Wolves ) play supporting roles in the drama, which will have premiere screenings this weekend at the Pioneertown International Film Festival before opening in theaters later this year.

“It goes back to Jason,” says co-producer Martin Kistler, who last worked with Momoa on the Netflix movie Sweet Girl . “I think it was roughly 2018. Jason’s been going to Joshua Tree for a long, long, long time, for climbing and all different types of activities. And about four years ago, he was offered the chance to buy a piece of property outside of Joshua Tree Park. And so we were talking and spending some time out there. Then one of the locals, who’s also an old friend of Jason’s, made him aware of the Willie Boy story. Basically, what he said was, ‘Do you know what happened on your property that you’re about to buy? That was where the shootout with Willie Boy happened.’ And I was like, ‘What?’”

“I remember hearing about Willie Boy, the Desert Runner,” Momoa revealed to the showbiz website Deadline last year, “and was fascinated by the story surrounding him. What should be a universal story of a relationship gone bad, quickly became a muddy, complex story about the power of crooked media and how Native Americans are portrayed to the public. The true story of Willie Boy has never been told, and it’s a beautiful one. I developed the story with my team because I wanted to set the record straight, and set the spirits of this story free.”

“While he was in Joshua Tree,” screenwriter Thomas Pa’a Sibbett ( Braven ) told C&I , “Jason called me, and he was just like, ‘Dude, I’ve got to tell you the story.’ So he literally pitched it to me over the phone after he had just heard it. He was like, ‘We got to do it.’ Of course, we knew instinctively that there was a Native perspective here that could really drive the story and could touch an audience in a completely different way. And that’s really what our focus became —there’s this beautiful love story, this beautiful Native American love story, that we could tell.

“Also,” Sibbett added, “I started to see the connections between the Greek story of Eurydice and Orpheus, just this beautiful tale of this couple who loved each other. Eurydice gets bit by a snake and dies. She goes into the afterlife and he chases her there and tries to save her — it doesn’t quite work. So I kind of patterned the story after that to a degree — but using this true story that happened to ground our story.”

Sibbett and Momoa wrote the forward to the recently published Willie Boy & The Last Western Manhunt by Clifford E. Traftzer, the respected historian who served as technical advisor for the film, and whom they praise for helping them go far beyond 1909 newspaper accounts that characterized Willie Boy as “a scoundrel, murderer, abuser and savage.” When they sent him a copy of their preliminary script, Traftzer  — a Distinguished Professor of History and Costo Chair of American Indians Affairs at the University of California, Riverside — provided invaluable insight and assistance “Dr. T began a series of conversations with us,” the filmmakers write in the book’s forward, “that led to re-writes that fleshed out the original script. This collaboration led to a moving representation that is not only historically based, but captures the emotions of the people and nuanced details of the era and the time.”

According to Traftzer, Willie Boy and his beloved Carlotta were cousins — and according to tribal customs of the time, a union between them would be viewed as incest.  Nevertheless, the couple managed to meet in secret from time to time — despite the strong disapproval of Carlotta’s intimidating father. “Willie Boy was afraid of William Mike, who was a shaman,” Traftzer told C&I . “And he had been a former warrior in the 1860s. He had fought the Mojaves during a Mojave-Chemehuevi war on the Colorado river. He was a tough guy, is what I’m saying. He could be a very sweet guy, but if you’re looking for trouble, you found it. And he had this added ability as a shaman to hurt people.”

But on a fateful September night in Banning, California, Willie Boy approached William Mike with a .30-30 rifle in hand to demand the right to marry Carlotta. There are conflicting accounts about what happened next, but Traftzer says that based on his research — including descendants of William Mike — he has concluded that “since William Mike was shot in the face and it blew his brains out, it’s most likely that William Mike grabbed that gun to take it away from him. And the barrel was facing his face and it went off and killed him. Even the family believes it was an accident. But nevertheless, here we have William Mike dead.”

After that, Traftzer said, Willie Boy “went and saw the family and the mother and told Carlotta, ‘Let’s go. And she went with him willingly. He did not force her or rape her — those are stories that were told by the posse that pursued them. He loved this girl and he wanted to take off with her. And she went willingly. And the mother said, ‘Well, if you're going to go do that, go do that.’ So off into the desert they went.”

Some say Carlotta eventually committed suicide after days of fleeing through the desert heat. Others say Willie Boy shot her himself, lest she slow him down. And still others insist she was killed by a stray bullet fired by the posse pursuing them. Whatever the cause of her demise, Willie Boy did not survive much longer. But their legends continue

“Jason is a good friend of mine,” Zahn McClarnon told C&I, “and he’s got some property out in Joshua Tree. He came to me a few years back with the idea that these stories he had heard from the Chemehuevi people in that area should be told in a movie. As soon as he told me ‘We're thinking about doing the Willie Boy story,’ I thought it was a wonderful idea. And he asked me to come on board to do one of the parts. And also to help him cast the movie as well. And I was happy to do so. We had a lot of fun out there in the desert, even though it was pretty hot.

“Actually, I was working another job at the time. So I had to fly back from Quebec City in Canada to Palm Springs, back and forth, for about a month. And it was tough to do that, to work out the schedules, etc. But it was important that we told that Willie Boy story from a Native perspective, and that we had the Chemehuevi tribe behind us and supporting us.”

Long before production began in and around Banning, Momoa and Sibbett spoke with tribal leaders of the Twentynine Palms band of Chemehuevi — including a few who were direct descendants of people involved in the Willie Boy story. They were given a copy of the screenplay during this meeting, and told that if they had any objections to their bringing that story to the screen, Momoa and his team simply would not make the movie. Fortunately, the tribal leaders granted their approval, and shooting started with a ceremony performed by members of the Chemehuevi, Serrano and Cahuilla tribes.

Director Christian Camargo sees The Last Manhunt as a correction of ill-informed and/or exploitative historical accounts as well as an entertaining — and, he hopes, enlightening — motion picture.

“I, too, have been coming out to Joshua Tree for a very long time,” Camargo told C&I . “I’ve been living out here pretty much, as far as my only residence, since 2006. And so I’m very familiar with the Willie Boy story  — and also the sort of oral tradition of the tribes surrounding the area. They didn’t really write things down, so the white man’s story of Willie Boy became the written record, and the oral tradition was just sort of sidelined. It’s something that everyone always talks about, but we never see anything about.

“So this is our mission, to sort of be a vessel for the native voices to come through. This is not a traditional shootout western, you know? Jason and the whole group, we decided to make an art-house western that has a very simple story. But the spirit of the land and the spirit of the culture has to come through almost in silence. You know? And so it’s going to require people to wrap their heads around the fact that they're not watching a — quote, unquote — Jason Momoa film, and that this is part of a deep spiritual healing process that this area needs. Because the Willie Boy story got tremendously corrupted. And there is are a lot of the evil spirits that surround that lore, and they need to be calmed. They need to be quieted. That’s what we’ve tried to do.”

RELATED POSTS

RELATED CONTENT

8 Issues for Only $24.95

When You Subscribe Today

Weekly Newsletter Sign Up

Quick links.

• Affiliate Links Policy
• Customer Service
• Privacy Policy
• C&I in Your Store
• C&I Digital Editions

The Last Manhunt - Everything You Need To Know

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

With its open frontiers, epic adventures, and a healthy heaping of violence and lawlessness, it's no wonder the Western is one of the most enduring and popular genres in all of cinema. And now, Jason Momoa has tossed his Stetson into the Western arena with "The Last Manhunt," a film that's both a thriller and a love story and one that looks at the Old West through a fresh perspective.

Based on the true story that has its roots in oral history passed down amongst the Chemehuevi Native American tribe, "The Last Manhunt" was released on November 18, 2022. It tells the story of Willie Boy, a Paiute-Chemehuevi outlaw on the run from the law, along with his love, Carlota. Drawing comparisons to the likes of "Romeo and Juliet," the film marries epic tragedy with the grit and gunfights of spaghetti Westerns. If you want to know more about this 2022 film, read on for everything you need to know about "The Last Manhunt."

What is the plot of The Last Manhunt?

The plot of "The Last Manhunt" is based on the real-life story of a Chemehuevi-Paiute man named Willie Boy (who, incidentally, was also the inspiration for the 1969 Western "Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here," starring Robert Redford ). The film tells the story of star-crossed lovers Willie Boy and Carlota — they long to be together but Carlota's father doesn't approve. During a confrontation that goes very wrong, Willie Boy accidentally shoots and kills Carlota's dad, causing the 19th-century Bonnie and Clyde to go on the run. 

As a result, a posse is formed to hunt down the couple, including an alcoholic sheriff, a manipulative reporter, and a Native American lawman. Some want to bring Willie Boy back alive, while others want him dead, leading to the titular "last manhunt" and a tragic Western showdown. Bill Bromiley — the president of Saban Films, the company that released the film — told Variety that the movie is "a story about misrepresented culture" and asserted that "The Last Manhunt" tells the "true story of Willie Boy" for the first time.

Who is in the cast of The Last Manhunt?

At the top of the cast of "The Last Manhunt" (which is primarily made up of Alaska Native and Native American actors) are Martin Sensmeier and Mainei Kinimaka, who respectively play the lead roles of Willie Boy and his love interest, Carlota. Sensmeier in particular has a prolific resume within the Western genre itself, having starred in films like "The Magnificent Seven" and Taylor Sheridan's "Wind River," as well as Western television shows such as "Westworld," "Yellowstone," and "1883" (the latter two also coming from the mind of Taylor Sheridan ).

In addition to co-writing the story for "The Last Manhunt," "Aquaman" and "Game of Thrones" star Jason Momoa also plays in the film as a character named Big Jim (who, you should know, basically functions as an extended cameo). Other cast members include "Dark Winds" and "Doctor Sleep" star Zahn McClarnon, "Killers of the Flower Moon" star Lily Gladstone, Raoul Max Trujillo of "Mayans M.C.," and the film's director, Christian Camargo.

Additionally, the film features the talents of Brandon Oakes, Wade Williams, Tantoo Cardinal, Amy Seimetz, and Jamie Sives. All told, "The Last Manhunt" boasts an excellent cast, filled from top to bottom with talented actors and several veterans of the Western genre.

Who wrote and directed The Last Manhunt?

While Jason Momoa helped create the story, is starring in the film, and is producing through his On the Roma banner, he didn't direct. Those duties went to Christian Camargo , who previously directed 2014's "Days and Nights," a film about a family's intense Memorial Day weekend that stars the likes of Katie Holmes, William Hurt, and Allison Janney.

In addition to directing "Days and Nights" and "The Last Manhunt," Camargo has had quite a bit of acting experience. He starred in the Jason Momoa AppleTV+ series "See" and has played in movies like "The Hurt Locker," "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," and "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1," as well as TV series like "Penny Dreadful," "Haven," and "The Goodwife." Of course, most people are going to recognize Camargo from his stint in one of Showtime's very best series — "Dexter." If you've seen the show ( beware — spoilers ), then you'll recognize his face as Dexter Morgan's psychopathic brother, Brian Moser, the Ice Truck Killer.

As for the screenplay, that was penned by  Thomas Pa'a Sibbett , who developed the story with Jason Momoa and also wrote "Braven," which was similarly released by Saban Films and also starred Momoa. 

What is The Last Manhunt rated?

As you might have assumed by the plot of "The Last Manhunt," there's quite a bit of violence involved. The whole thing revolves around a shooting and the subsequent manhunt, after all. As a result, "The Last Manhunt" has been rated R for "some violence and language." In addition to humans getting shot to pieces, some horses are killed as well. On the language front, it's exactly what you'd expect from an R-rated movie, complete with F-bombs (via Common Sense Media ).

Really, none of this is much of a surprise, as most modern-day Westerns — from "Hell or High Water" to "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" — bear this rating. It means we're delving into dark and serious topics, not to be taken lightly. "The Last Manhunt" is dealing with a real-life story and some serious themes, so the style and tone is appropriately adult.

How are critics and audiences responding to The Last Manhunt?

"The Last Manhunt" had big ambitions. It wanted to tell a true story in a way that honored the actual people involved while also being an engaging Western. Did it succeed? Well, unfortunately for those involved with the making of the film, "The Last Manhunt" is a massive critical bomb.

At the time of this writing, the film has a 13% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes , based on eight reviews. The sole positive review comes from Jeffrey M. Anderson of Common Sense Media, who writes, "Even if its languid, loping storytelling lacks urgency, this small-scale, well-acted Western uses its rich, pictorial visual scheme to update the Willie Boy story in interesting, relevant ways."

However, most other critics found the film incredibly dull. Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru described "The Last Manhunt" as "a sluggishly-paced, anemic and underwhelming Western low on suspense and excitement," and Roger Moore of Movie Nation concurred, labeling the film "a 'true story' Western that's a tad malnourished, stolid and depressingly downbeat." Sadly, most audience members seem to agree with the critics. At the time of this writing, the movie has a measly 33% audience score, based on fewer than 50 reviews.

Where to watch The Last Manhunt

If you're not scared off by the bad reviews — perhaps you really love Westerns, you're a diehard Jason Momoa fan, or you want to make up your own mind about this Old West tale — then you can hunt down "The Last Manhunt" on multiple sites. You can ride on over to Amazon Video , Google Play , YouTube , or Vudu and rent the film for $6.99. If you want to spend a bit more — $14.99 to be exact — you can buy the film on those very same sites.

Home » Movies

The Last Manhunt review – a dreary Western lacks perspective and energy

This review of The Last Manhunt is spoiler-free. 

There’s something a little cynical about the way The Last Manhunt has been marketed. The title, while accurate, suggests a Western that contains more than a single gunfight, and the poster, which has a stern-looking Jason Momoa hovering above the two leads, suggests a film that Jason Momoa is in, at least to an extent that justifies putting him on the poster. Alas, that isn’t the case, though this glacial, contemplative true-ish story is probably the kind of thing Momoa will like when someone tells him he’s in it.

I get it, though – the point of making films is to then trick people into paying to see them. The story of Willie Boy , the hunt for whom was one of the longest in United States history and the last of the Old West, has been seen before on the silver screen in 1969’s Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here , a Robert Redford vehicle that came out long enough ago for the tale to be worth another do-over. Christian Camargo stars and directs from a script by his See stablemate Momoa and Thomas Pa’a Sibbett , who also penned Momoa’s outdoorsy actioner Braven , so it isn’t difficult to see how many phone calls it took to get this made.

Willie Boy ( Martin Sensmeier ) is a long-distance Desert Runner in the tradition of his Chemehuevi tribe, but he’s also in love with Carlota ( Mainei Kinimaka ), his fifth-generation cousin, which is distant enough for the relationship to not be too weird but close enough to still be against tribal law. Carlota’s father, William ( Zahn McClarnon ), the tribe’s leader and shaman, is dead against the relationship, but you know what kids are like. When he tries to intervene in their continued escapades, William is shot dead by Willie Boy in a sequence edited in a confusing enough way that it’s hard to figure out exactly how the gun went off, and the lovers are forced to flee into the desert with a posse on their tails.

Allow me to manage your expectations – this is not a conventional Western. It isn’t a taut cat-and-mouse thriller. It isn’t even a love story, really, in that doomed Romeo & Juliet way the premise implies, since the focus is less on Willie Boy and Carlota than the posse hunting them, led by Sheriff Wilson (Camargo) and a couple of his goons, and accompanied by a Native American lawman named Hyde ( Raoul Max Trujilo ) and a couple of his. Tensions are high within the group, obviously, motivations conflict and the whole thing becomes less about the manhunt than its implications, especially since a sensationalist reporter, Randolph ( Mojean Aria ), tags along to grossly exaggerate the details and stoke enough fear to sell newspapers.

There are obviously some interesting elements here, some of which would have even been worth making a movie about, but The Last Manhunt can’t decide where to place its focus, so instead ends up flitting between each thing almost at random, which fails to build tension in the chase, and makes several sequences, including a few key ones, feel haphazard and perfunctory. On several occasions I found myself thinking, “Oh, we’re doing this now?”, in a mild state of disbelief at how ineffectively the script had set the moment up.

It’s a shame because you can tell The Last Manhunt isn’t the kind of film that has been knocked together without a care. It’s often impressive to look at – though it relies on the beauty of the natural landscape to do a lot of heavy lifting – and is chock full of Native American actors who’re telling a story about their own people with obvious seriousness. Some of the characters and themes are distinct. You can tell there’s a proper movie somewhere in here, straining against a very lackluster script and all-too-leisurely direction. Those looking for another Momoa outdoorsman adventure will be especially poorly served here, but then again so will most people.

Additional reading:

• The Last Manhunt  ending explained .

Article by Jonathon Wilson

Jonathon is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Cut and has been an instrumental part of the team since its inception in 2017. Jonathon has remained involved in all aspects of the site’s operation, mainly dedicated to its content output, remaining one of its primary Entertainment writers while also functioning as our dedicated Commissioning Editor, publishing over 6,500 articles.

Hanna season 2, episode 4 recap and breakdown - escape plans

Renewed or Cancelled – will there be a Tekken: Bloodline season 2?

This website cannot be displayed as your browser is extremely out of date.

Please update your browser to one of the following: Chrome , Firefox , Edge

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Last Manhunt

• Based on true events in the early 1900s Wild West, Willie Boy falls in love with Carlota from the Chemehuevi tribe despite being forbidden to be together. A fatal incident forces the young couple to flee the only place they know as home.
• In 1909, amidst the dying old west, Willie Boy, a long distance Desert Runner by Chemehuevi tradition, falls in love with young native beauty, Carlota. Carlota's father, a Chemehuevi shaman and local tribal leader, refuses to let the young couple be together. In a fatal confrontation, Carlota's father falls dead to an accidental gun shot and the young lovers flee to the sun enslaved Mohave desert. The local sheriff leads a mounted posse armed with fire power and two Native American trackers seeking justice for their "murdered" tribal leader. Willie Boy and Carlota evade capture outlasting the men and their horses. However, fake news stories meant to sell papers adds to the mounting pressure to capture Willie Boy. In a desert that purifies all, the search for Willie Boy forces everyone to face their own demons in this tragic tale of love, death, and desert heat.

It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. Be the first to contribute.

Contribute to this page

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More from this title

More to explore.

Recently viewed

The Last Manhunt (2022)

Streaming in:

We checked for updates on 251 streaming services on April 6, 2024 at 10:49:55 PM. Something wrong? Let us know!

The Last Manhunt streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "The Last Manhunt" streaming on Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Showtime Apple TV Channel or for free with ads on Tubi TV. It is also possible to rent "The Last Manhunt" on Microsoft Store, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Apple TV online and to download it on Microsoft Store, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Apple TV, Vudu.

Where does The Last Manhunt rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:19:42 AM, 04/07/2024

The Last Manhunt is 6208 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 2934 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Hell Baby but less popular than The Bigamist.

In 1909, Willie Boy and his love Carlota go on the run after he accidentally shoots her father in a confrontation gone terribly wrong. With President Taft coming to the area, the local sheriff leads two Native American trackers seeking justice for their “murdered” tribal leader.

Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Production country

People who liked the last manhunt also liked.

Popular movies coming soon

Similar Movies you can watch for free

Other popular Movies starring Martin Sensmeier

Screen Rant

Manhunt episode 5 fact-check: 8 biggest true story changes & inaccuracies.

As the major players in Manhunt move towards the endgame in the pursuit for Booth, some of the historical elements favor the narrative over reality.

• Historical facts are occasionally abandoned for a more engaging narrative in Manhunt episode 5.
• Booth's interactions in the show are largely fabricated, as there are no witnesses to his journey after Lincoln's assassination.
• The portrayal of Andrew Johnson's meddling in the show differs from the severity of his real-life actions.

Manhunt episode 5 saw many of the primary characters involved in the hunt and capture of John Wilkes Booth moving into position for the end of the chase, and in doing so, historical facts were occasionally abandoned in favor of a more engaging and exciting narrative. While episode 4 focused on the conspiracy behind the assassination, Manhunt episode 5 featured a new villain in the form of President Andrew Johnson and his plans for Reconstruction . The Apple TV+ drama stuck fairly close to the truth regarding the final stages of the hunt for Booth, although there were some slight inconsistencies.

Manhunt episode 5 stuck to the facts when it came to the most significant elements of the sociopolitical climate in post-Civil War America, but it played fast and loose with the timeline. It's been well-established at this point that many of the non-Booth-related events depicted in Manhunt didn't actually occur in the 12-day period in which he was on the run. However, each of them is a direct consequence of Booth's assassination of Abraham Lincoln , so comparing them directly using Tobias Menzies' Edwin Stanton as a conduit creates a picture of the greater implications of America's most infamous murder.

Manhunt Episode 5 Ending Explained: What's Next For John Wilkes Booth?

8 john wilkes booth wasn't confronted by confederate soldiers returning home, the incident is a good depiction of how booth was perceived..

Many of the interactions that John Wilkes Booth has in Manhunt are fabricated, simply because there are no witnesses to what actually occurred on his journey after he assassinated Lincoln. That was the case in Manhunt episode 5, in which Booth was shown impersonating a Confederate soldier and getting caught lying to actual Confederate soldiers trying to make their way home from the final battle of the Civil War. In reality, there is no way to know if this interaction happened at all, but it seems highly unlikely that if it did, it unfolded as it's shown in episode 5.

Caught in a lie, Booth revealed his identity to the tired and wounded Confederate soldiers, clearly expecting to be embraced as the hero he envisioned himself to be. In fact, the opposite happened; Booth was literally spit on for his cowardly murder and for impersonating a soldier , having not earned any true honor on a battlefield. It's an important scene, as it's the first notion Booth gets that he is viewed not as a hero, but as a despicable villain, even by those who fought for the same side as him.

7 Special Field Order 15 Unfolded Differently

The origin of the order was shifted a bit to align with the show's narrative..

Manhunt episode 5 provided a glimpse at one of Lincoln's most important objectives coming out of the Civil War: the reintegration of newly freed black Americans into society . Edwin Stanton is shown attempting to maintain Lincoln's vision for Reconstruction throughout Manhunt , and episode 5 contains the best example of how this was supposed to play out. His vision never came to be, and the effects have persisted in America for far more than a century.

Manhunt episode 5 overlooks some of the details to make Special Field Order 15 seem like a more morally significant gesture than it was.

Stanton and two black religious leaders met with General William Tecumseh Sherman to describe what would provide the greatest assistance in getting freed men and women a clean start after being granted freedom. After telling Sherman that owning their own land would be the best step forward, the Union general issued Special Field Order 15 on the spot , which granted the famous "40 acres and a mule" to newly freed Americans and their families. The order was painted in the show as a significant step forward, when in reality it was a Band-Aid at best, which was unfortunately short-lived.

In reality, Sherman met with Stanton and 20 black leaders and laymen, and issued the order several days later. It was also not intended to be a permanent solution to jump-start a society for newly freed Americans; it was an effort to find a place for the thousands of black citizens who joined up with Sherman on his "March to the Sea" at the end of the Civil War, during which he ravaged Confederate infrastructure. Manhunt episode 5 overlooks some of the details to make it seem like a more morally significant gesture than it was.

6 Mary Simms Never Had a Land Grant

There is no record of simms being one of the freed americans to get a land grant..

Mary Simms is shown not only receiving a land grant, but also beginning to set up a community and makeshift school on the land, which she opens to her neighbors. In reality, Mary Simms is intended to be a representation of how newly freed black Americans were treated in the post-Civil War period, meaning her story in Manhunt doesn't align with that of the real Mary Simms. Ergo, there is no record that Mary Simms was one of the new citizens who received a land grant.

5 Mary Simms Testified Against Mudd Much Later

Their face-to-face confrontation didn't occur as shown..

In Manhunt episode 5, Edwin Stanton and his men finally realize the connection between John Wilkes Booth and Dr. Samuel Mudd. That brings them to Mudd's doorstep, and while Mudd is adamant that he didn't know anything about who Booth was when he treated him, Mary Simms points Stanton in the direction of the proof he needs (in the form of Booth's boot) to prove Mudd is lying. She also staunchly accuses her tormentor Mudd of lying as he is hauled away, finally meting out a bit of justice for his mistreatment of her and her brother.

The real Mary Simms actually left Mudd nearly a year before Booth ever set foot in his house. Therefore, Mary's terrifying interaction with Booth and her subsequent accusations against Mudd never happened as they are shown in Manhunt . However, Simms did later testify in the trial of Dr. Samuel Mudd about his criminal activity as a Confederate agent, which helped lead to his conviction.

4 Edwin Stanton Didn't Track Booth South Himself

Stanton wasn't the gumshoe he is depicted as..

Part of what makes Manhunt such an engrossing thriller is the cat-and-mouse detective game being played between Booth and Edwin Stanton . Stanton venturing across the northeast in search of leads while combating the plots to unravel Lincoln's vision for the reunified United States is what carries the action outside of Booth's slow journey towards a decimated Richmond. However, that simply isn't accurate to history.

The real Edwin Stanton did in fact organize the hunt for Booth, and in the months following Lincoln's death he fought for his vision against those who would see it undone. He simply wasn't the boots-on-the-ground detective that Manhunt depicts him as. As the Secretary of War and a lawyer, Stanton was responsible for leadership, but he mostly dispatched others in the actual pursuit of Booth and the clues that ultimately led to his capture.

3 Andrew Johnson's Political Meddling Was Far More Severe

Johnson's devastating effects on reconstruction ran deep..

Put simply, Andrew Johnson was made Lincoln's Vice President in an attempt to bridge the gap between Lincoln and the Radical Republicans that supported him and those who sympathized with or fought for the Confederacy. He was, in fact, the last American president to own slaves . In Manhunt , Johnson is shown meeting with Confederate leaders and initially pushes back against them in favor of the land grants, which does not align with history. In reality, Johnson's sympathy for slave owners was evidenced at every turn.

President Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached, and one of the deciding factors was his attempt to remove Edwin Stanton from office.

Per the Encyclopedia Brittanica , the real Andrew Johnson vetoed all federal laws that would have protected former slaves from the terror that they faced in the former Confederacy. He is shown using a slur in Manhunt which is symbolic of the effect he had on furthering the cause of white supremacy in general in the post-Civil War era. Many of the trials and tribulations that black Americans have endured in the last century can be traced back to Johnson's staunch opposition to Lincoln's original vision for Reconstruction.

2 Andrew Johnson Rolled Back Land Grants Months Later

His actions didn't actually fall in line with the hunt for booth..

As with the majority of the events in Manhunt , the timeline around Andrew Johnson rolling back land grants did not align with history. While the show was fairly accurate at depicting the suddenness of the eviction, the actual legal process and execution of the orders played out over a number of months . Johnson's efforts to impede the integration of newly freed slaves and refugees resulted in a number of devastating pieces of legislation being passed at the state level in the South, most notably some of the later Black Codes, which restricted African Americans' freedom to unspeakable levels.

1 Stanton's Asthma Was Not As Dire As Its Depicted

It was a real problem for stanton, but his time was not quite up while chasing booth..

Edwin Stanton did in fact suffer from chronic asthma for much of his life, and given the lack of advanced medical techniques available in the 19th century, it was a serious impediment in his day-to-day life. However, at the time of his pursuit of Booth, Stanton was not reaching the point of no return, as his doctor indicates earlier in the show. In Manhunt episode 5, Stanton collapses as he and his men finally discover Booth's location due to his asthma. In reality, the chronic asthma did claim Stanton's life, but four years after John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln .

Source: Encyclopedia Brittanica

Manhunt (2024)

Mahunt is an AppleTV+ mini-series focusing on the hunt for John Wilkes Booth after he assassinates Abraham Lincoln. Anthony Boyle stars as John Wilkes Booth alongside Tobias Menzies, Lovie Simone, and Will Harrison in the series created by Monica Beletsky.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the synanon fix.

Rory Kennedy is a phenomenal interviewer. We’ve seen this before in her other projects like the Oscar-nominated “ Last Days in Vietnam ,” and it’s the main strength of her new project, HBO’s 4-part “The Synanon Fix.” Her skill set in making people feel comfortable allows former members of the self-help group that turned into a cult to speak so candidly about their time in the organization, to the point that some admit things on-camera that they surely never have before. These men and women are remarkably open about not just what Synanon meant to their recovery but how the group descended into darkness under the increasing madness of its leader, Chuck Dederich. As is so often the case nowadays, “The Synanon Fix” isn’t the right length—it would have made an excellent feature documentary—as the first couple episodes take too long to get to the downfall era of Synanon, but there’s something powerful about the sheer bulk of the hard-to-believe stories of a group that felt problematic from the beginning.

Many of the survivors of Synanon would disagree with that last sentence. It’s startling to hear how many of the people involved in this organization still speak about its origins positively, noting that they wouldn’t be here without it. And yet watching “The Synanon Fix,” one can see the rot at the core of this approach to sobriety from the very beginning. Founded in 1957 by Dederich, Synanon was a drug rehab program in Santa Monica that was built around tearing people down. They gained notoriety for something called the “game,” a form of attack therapy wherein people essentially criticize, ridicule, and insult someone, forcing them into sobriety through shame more than anything else. Does it work? There are people alive today who insist that it does. But it inherently creates a deeply flawed power dynamic in that someone has to be in charge of the “game.” It is incredibly easy to draw the line from Dederich overseeing attack therapy to the way he would increase his attempts to control Synanon members over the decades to come.

“The Synanon Fix” really captures how programs like this rely on brainwashing. By the end, Synanon was abusing children, forcing members to swap partners, and even allegedly attempting murder by rattlesnake. Between those early days of letting junkies clean up on a dirty couch and the downfall, Kennedy details the increasingly disturbing decisions by the power structure of Synanon, particularly Dederich. So much of what is captured here is a story of how controlling behavior feeds on itself. Every time Dederich got his followers to do one thing, he had to top it the next time, until he was breaking one of the core rules about violence, broadcasting his members’ personal trauma, and shaving the heads of the females in Synanon. When Kennedy gets to interviewing the children of a neighbor who was well-known for being a sort of Underground Railroad for young people fleeing the abusive compound next door, it’s clear that the group has long ago left behind its higher moral purpose.

And yet what’s so interesting about the final hour is how little judgment the survivors place on Synanon. As a standalone hour, it’s one of the most fascinating documents in a long time regarding how cults form and persist. We all like to believe that we wouldn’t fall for a cult leader like Dederich but listen to these people who have seen so much awful behavior speak about community, survival, and supporting one another. Cults form because people ignore the bad and focus only on the good that they’re getting from that organization. When a gentleman speaks of being forced into a vasectomy in his twenties during a time when Dederich thought their group should be childless—women were forced into abortions too—there’s almost no anger in his voice. One would expect these people to be furious at being manipulated, but they seem to still consider all of the bad stuff that happened as mere cost for the clean community that saved their lives. 

All of this could have been accomplished, and arguably more powerfully, in a feature film. The set-up takes too long—the first hour is particularly slow—and there could have been even more blunt power with better pace to the horror show of Synanon. There’s still enough here to warrant a look, largely because of how much Kennedy gets her subjects to open up in ways that feel almost unfathomable, speaking openly about trauma in a manner that reflects how a group like Synanon happens in the first place. We like to think that something like Synanon couldn’t happen today in a world more aware of cult behavior. Watching “The Synanon Fix” reminded me that human behavior can be manipulated in the name of rehabilitation or self-help. That's how cults happen. Leaders can do anything if they convince their members it's related to their best interest.

Whole series screened for review. Premieres on HBO on April 1 st .

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

Now playing

Peyton Robinson

Kim's Video

The Animal Kingdom

Monica castillo.

We Were the Lucky Ones

Robert daniels.

Film Credits

The Synanon Fix (2024)

240 minutes

• Rory Kennedy

Latest blog posts

​Criterion Celebrates the Films That Forever Shifted Our Perception of Kristen Stewart​

The Estate of George Carlin Destroys AI George Carlin in Victory for Copyright Protection (and Basic Decency)

The Future of the Movies, Part 3: Fathom Events CEO Ray Nutt

11:11 - Eleven Reviews by Roger Ebert from 2011 in Remembrance of His Transition 11 Years Ago

‘Manhunt’s Tobias Menzies Explains Why You Have to “Park the Meta” When Working with Abraham Lincoln

Menzies also talks about the thrill of working with Julia Louis-Dreyfus on 'You Hurt My Feelings.’

[Editor's note: The following contains some spoilers for Manhunt.]

The Big Picture

• The Apple TV+ series 'Manhunt' explores Abraham Lincoln's assassination aftermath and the hunt for John Wilkes Booth through Secretary of War Edwin Stanton's eyes.
• The series uncovers layers of the conspiracy, the cat-and-mouse game, and the Black American story that played a role in the trial.
• Tobias Menzies found the compelling story, deep character curation, and exploration of the relationship with Lincoln intriguing.

The Apple TV+ seven-part limited series Manhunt explores the aftermath of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln ( Hamish Linklater ) and the hunt to find John Wilkes Booth ( Anthony Boyle ). Told through the eyes of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ( Tobias Menzies ), a little-known figure in American history, the story unfolds as a personal and political tale of what can happen when people feel threatened by change. One of the things that’s so interesting about this series is that, even though you think you know the story of this famous presidential assassination, you’ll discover that there were so many layers that you hadn’t realized, from the conspiracy that set things in motion, to the cat-and-mouse game to capture Booth, to the Black American woman that played an important role in the trial that brought it all to light.

During this interview with Collider, Menzies talked about why he found Manhunt so compelling, how he approached finding who Stanton was, the way Stanton viewed Lincoln throughout their time together, what it was like to work with Linklater when he was in character, the Black American story that’s woven in, and what was lost when Lincoln was assassinated. He also spoke of the fun he had making a film with Julia Louis-Dreyfus , and the mix of things he tends to look for in a project.

Manhunt (2024)

The aftermath of the first American presidential assassination and the fight to preserve and protect the ideals that were the foundation of Lincoln's Reconstruction plans.

Collider: I found it so interesting to be so compelled by a story for which we already know the outcome. That really says something about the quality of the writing, the caliber of the acting, and the way it all comes together. What was the thing that most appealed to you? Was it the historical significance of it all? Was it something about your specific character? What was the first thing that really made you feel like you had to be a part of this?

TOBIAS MENZIES: Probably just the story. I was fascinated by a lot of the details that I wasn’t aware of. I knew that Lincoln had been killed in a theater by an actor, and I don’t think I knew much beyond that. There’s the vividness, complexity, and the sheer natural drama of what really happened over both the assassination and the timing of the assassination, within days of the end of the Civil War, and all the political and personal connections and relationships woven into it all. That was a pretty compelling thing to read, just to start with, and it made me very interested in being involved.

'Manhunt' Review: Gripping Conspiracy Drama Is Another Win for Apple TV+

A character like this guy that you’re playing, Edwin Stanton, is a real-life historical figure, but he’s not one that the general population would know much of anything about if they’ve even heard his name before. How did you connect with him? What helped you in finding him and figuring out who he was?

MENZIES: In a way, it’s an act of curation. You’re reading about him and finding out who the real man was, but also building something that can be at the heart of this TV genre piece. It was a combination of that and (show creator) Monica [Beletsky]’s writing. There’s obviously an interesting physical component because he’s an asthmatic, which is a seam through it with the physical rigidity to him. That rides alongside this fierce moral compass, which drives him through it. He had a personal relationship with Lincoln and a political relationship with Lincoln , which he is, on both fronts, trying to salvage, in some way. Those ingredients are all woven together. He was a man of sometimes few words, and there’s something of the Western about it, with this manhunt structure of one man hunting another man. You’re borrowing on the iconography of cinema for that, as well. That’s why it felt like pretty rich territory.

'Manhunt's Tobias Menzies Feels the Flashbacks Give a Real Sense of the Lincoln and Stanton Dynamic

There’s such an interesting dynamic between your character and Abraham Lincoln, and we get little bits of it throughout the whole season. What was it like to explore that relationship and dynamic, and to find that with your co-star, Hamish Linklater? How did you see the relationship that they had with each other?

MENZIES: It was really easy to do. We had the good fortune to have Hamish Linklater playing Lincoln. He’s a brilliant actor and a great human being, so in a way, we got a lot for free, in terms of just having him to do it with. I think an important ingredient of this show is that through these flashbacks, you get a sense of the depth and the warmth of the relationship . It was ideological because together they were deep driving forces to freeing the slaves and that political agenda, which wasn’t over. When Lincoln is killed, they haven’t delivered on land rights and voting rights, so they were cut off midstream, in a way. And then, there was also a personal friendship. When they first met, Stanton didn’t think much of Lincoln. He was just a lawyer from Springfield. But he came to understand his political genius and his ability to bring disparate factions together and unify people. One of the books I read is called Team of Rivals , which is a book about the cabinet that Lincoln brought together during the Civil War. They were very, very different political personalities who often didn’t like each other politically, but he was able to draw them together to great effect, and Stanton came to understand the power of that.

'Manhunt' Gives Tobias Menzies His Long-Overdue Chance To Own the Screen

When you’re doing a project like this and you’re playing a real-life historical figure, and you’re doing scenes opposite someone playing Abraham Lincoln, is it just two actors doing a scene together, or does it feel surreal to have a moment like that when you’re in it?

MENZIES: You park the meta aspect of it. You can’t replay the scene if you’re too busy thinking about who you are. You just have to be a person, and this is your friend, and you’re talking about what you’re talking about. You have to concrete it into the doable and not worry about that other aspect of it.

The Story of Mary Simms Plays a Big Role in 'Manhunt'

One of my favorite characters in the series is Mary Simms (Lovie Simone). I found myself really wanting to root for her. What was it like to do the scenes between your characters and to do all the courtroom preparation?

MENZIES: A big part of this show is an African American story. Monica was keen to articulate that throughout this piece, and at the heart of that is Mary Simms. There was a very natural frisson about those scenes. You can really feel the gears of history in those scenes, going to the encampment to ask her to take the stand and testify. There’s a poignancy about that because we, as an audience, know that a lot was lost through the death of Lincoln, and it took so long to get those rights back, until the Civil Rights movement. There’s a great poignancy, naturally, around that character, to a certain degree.

Exactly How Famous Was John Wilkes Booth Before the Events of ‘Manhunt’?

Acting is one of the professions where you can grow up watching and loving certain actors, and then you might become an actor and find yourself sharing scenes with the same actors that you used to watch. What is one of those moments that stands out for you? Is there someone that you were a fan of, that you later found yourself on set sharing scenes with?

MENZIES: I can think of quite a few examples. I worked a couple of years ago with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I made a film ( You Hurt My Feelings ) with her, and obviously, Seinfeld is in everyone’s blood, and lots of other amazing work. So, it was a real thrill to get to act with someone like that. One of the really fun parts of this job is that sometimes you get to work with heroes.

Tobias Menzies Pursues Projects With a Combination of Logic and Intuition

Do you know what you’re going to be working on next? How do you approach which roles you’re going to play? Is it an immediate connection that you have, especially since you have amassed quite an interesting array of characters?

MENZIES: That’s nice to hear. It’s a bit of a mixture of the writing, who’s doing it, and whether the story resonates. It’s partly logical and partly intuition, and a bit of a mixture. I like the variety. I’m in New York at the moment doing a play ( The Hunt ) at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. It’s the variety that I’m drawn to, I guess.

What do you enjoy about doing theater and having that live reaction from the audience? It feels like it’s such a different experience to when it’s so contained in a film or a TV series.

MENZIES: It’s the same muscles, but a different kind of frame, I guess. As you said, it’s a live experience, so you get very immediate feedback. There’s a possibility of generating energy in that room each night, which you don’t really get in the more dissipated experiences of filming, which is broken up when you’re doing it in little bits. There are different challenges. When theater is good, it can be very exciting.

Manhunt is available to stream on Apple TV+. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Apple TV+

Things you buy through our links may earn  Vox Media  a commission.

There’s Really Nothing Else Like The Beast

Léa Seydoux and George MacKay play thwarted lovers over three different lifetimes in The Beast , but I wouldn’t describe Bertrand Bonello’s unsettling feature as a romance. It tries out different genres, from period drama to science fiction, but it’s closest in spirit to a horror movie. This is acknowledged by the opening scene, in which Seydoux steps out onto a green-screen set to enact being threatened by a monster that will be added in post. An off-screen voice guides her through the blocking and directs her to her mark. Can she pretend to be afraid of something that isn’t there? She can, and she does, producing a show of animal panic as an ominous score strikes up and the camera closes in to capture her wild eyes. The power of her fear makes it an eerie sight, even knowing there’s no actual threat — an idea that The Beast echoes and remixes as it leaps from period to period and mode to mode, flinging its characters together in different doomed scenarios.

Seydoux’s character, Gabrielle, is a model and aspiring actor in 2014 Los Angeles, which explains the green screen — she’ll later book a gig on a similar set to shoot a grotesque safety video in which she’s flung around on wires in a simulation of a car accident. In Paris in 1910, Gabrielle is the aristocratic wife of a doll-factory owner, while in the hollowed-out future of 2044, she’s a dissatisfied worker in a world dominated by AI, where professional advancement requires submitting to a procedure that rids you of strong emotions by regressing you through your past lives. That last scenario is, in theory, the film’s present day and the point from which The Beast starts. But there’s a case to be made for each timeline being the dominant one, which keeps a viewer off-balance. The earliest story line is most directly related to the film’s loosely cited source material, the 1903 Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle , about a man who refuses to marry or allow anyone into his life because he’s convinced that some unspecified doom is coming his way. For me, though, the 2014-set scenes exert the greatest pull, because of a daredevil bold choice: They draw inspiration from a real, and recent, mass shooter.

In each of the entwined segments, Gabrielle encounters MacKay’s character, Louis, and is inexorably drawn to him despite it always leading to her destruction. In 1910, he’s an Englishman she reencounters at a party after meeting him at a dinner years before, and in 2044, he’s another candidate questioning whether the “purification” process is right for him. But in 2014, he’s an incel with violent intentions who stalks Gabrielle back to the sprawling place where she’s house-sitting, representing a direct threat to her life rather than one to her stability or to her heart. The paralyzing fear in James’s book becomes a specifically masculine one in the movie — a fear of vulnerability and getting hurt. In flooded Paris, Louis pursues the now happily married Gabrielle, having been too intimidated to express interest in her when they first met. In the future, where everyone wears gas masks to walk through city streets so desolate that wildlife freely roams, Louis looks like a fellow holdout against the numbing bargain offered by AI but can’t be relied upon to hold strong.

In 2014, he’s channeled his apprehension about rejection into rage, which he expresses in misogynistic video rants that draw from Elliot Rodger. When Gabrielle approaches Louis in the wake of an earthquake that brings everyone outdoors, he’s stiff and unreceptive to her advances, unwilling to accept that she might genuinely be interested. This Louis is significantly more extreme than the others, and The Beast flounders a bit in trying to link the fears holding all three back. But that’s also what’s so engaging about the movie — it overflows with intriguing ideas, even if they aren’t all fully explored. Different elements recur like rhymes: The doll factory in 1910 is mirrored by an animatronic toy that keeps Gabrielle company in 2014 and by the gynoid, played memorably by Saint Omer ’s Guslagie Malanda, assigned to watch over her in 2044. Gabrielle is rejected by a trio of women at a Hollywood Boulevard nightclub in Los Angeles, only for the exact same encounter to happen at a retro disco in the future. There are repeat run-ins with clairvoyants, bodies floating in water, and admiring touches of hands. Throughout all this, Seydoux, an absurdly watchable actor who came close to stealing last month’s Dune: Part Two with only a handful of scenes, shifts seamlessly between corseted melodrama and dystopian sci-fi.

Still, it’s in the period closest to the present day where she’s most impressive. Bonello cribs heavily from David Lynch for the 2014 segment, which is suffused with dreamlike dread as the lonely Gabrielle haunts dance spots and drifts around the fish tank of a mansion she’s been living in, her desire for human connection overcoming her sense of self-preservation. It’s difficult to make a character feel tangible and human while also allowing them to do inexplicable things. But even when Gabrielle is in the grip of forces she seems hopeless to control, Seydoux finds warmth and a kamikaze openness that allows room for hope even amid several existences’ worth of pain. Better to be contradictory and messy and feel too much than to be dully consistent — praise that also applies to The Beast as a whole.

More Movie Reviews

• Monkey Man Is a Solid Action Thriller, But It Clearly Wants to Be More
• Behold, an Actually Good Omen Movie
• With The Old Oak , Ken Loach Goes Out on a Hopeful Note
• vulture section lede
• vulture homepage lede
• movie review
• george mackay
• léa seydoux
• bertrand bonello

Most Viewed Stories

• The 12 Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch This Weekend
• Cinematrix No. 30: April 5, 2024
• Is JoJo Siwa’s ‘Karma’ a Flop or a Flop?
• What Quiet on Set Leaves Out Is Just As Damning
• RuPaul’s Drag Race Recap: A New Chapter
• The Zone of Interest ’s Final Moments Are a Nazi Workaholic’s Nightmare

Editor’s Picks

Most Popular

What is your email.

This email will be used to sign into all New York sites. By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive email correspondence from us.

Sign In To Continue Reading

Create your free account.

Password must be at least 8 characters and contain:

• Lower case letters (a-z)
• Upper case letters (A-Z)
• Numbers (0-9)
• Special Characters (!@#$%^&*)

As part of your account, you’ll receive occasional updates and offers from New York , which you can opt out of anytime.

Advertisement

Supported by

The Watching Newsletter

What to Watch This Weekend: A Fun Historical Crime Drama

In its best and most exciting moments, “Manhunt” is the only show brilliant enough to ask: Why can’t Abraham Lincoln be in the “The Fugitive”?

• Share full article

By Margaret Lyons

So much of “Manhunt” is a deft modern chase thriller that one can almost feel the phantom F.B.I. windbreakers. You’d swear you can hear a ’90s office phone ringing, or that someone’s face is lit only by their late-night computer session. Yes, there’s an investigator’s crazy wall, but those photos aren’t 8x10s. They’re milky tintypes, because it is 1865, and we’re chasing John Wilkes Booth.

In its best and most exciting moments, “Manhunt” is the only show brilliant enough to ask: Why can’t Abraham Lincoln be in the “The Fugitive”? Tobias Menzies stars as Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war under Lincoln who led the 12-day search for Booth. As portrayed here, Stanton is intense, asthmatic, married to the job and thus neglecting his actual wife; you know the drill. His relationship with Lincoln (Hamish Linklater), seen in doting flashback, feels like an amped-up version of Josh and President Jed Bartlet on “The West Wing” — tender, Socratic, grand. And so when his mentor and their vision for America are destroyed with a single shot, Stanton leaps into aggrieved action.

“Manhunt” wears its historicity lightly, and its tone and dialogue lean decidedly contemporary. Mostly this does not undercut the intensity of the proceedings but instead adds flair and personality as well as an aerodynamic urgency. In other moments, though, modern lingo and mismatched performances make “Manhunt” feel uncomfortably like “Drunk History,” particularly when characters are either crying or sermonizing.

The show is also, deeply, a showbiz story. Booth ( Anthony Boyle ) is a mopey dirtbag actor, desperate for fame and approval and thrilled to deploy “Don’t you know who I am?” when given the chance. He reads coverage of the assassination as an insecure star reads his reviews, and he bristles when fans repeatedly tell him he’s shorter than they thought he’d be. Characters jockey for flattering media coverage and argue about advancing their own narratives both for vanity and for the sake of a fragile nation. A whistle-stop tour of Lincoln’s body is framed as a flashy PR strategy. All the world’s a stage, and … uh … some of us get assassinated in the audience.

“Manhunt” thrives on taut, terrific little moments. Stanton loathes Andrew Johnson (Glenn Morshower), who doesn’t seem to care much. “You could be the first man to call me ‘Mr. President,’” Johnson oozes. “Touch a Bible first, Andy,” Stanton snaps back. The show also builds tension with real aplomb: ticking clocks underscore many scenes, and characters rush through frames, hurrying themselves and the story.

Even when it gets dopey, “Manhunt” is still engrossing — fun, even. New episodes arrive Fridays through April 19, on Apple TV+.

Margaret Lyons is a television critic at The Times, and writes the TV parts of the Watching newsletter . More about Margaret Lyons

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig have wound in and out of each other’s lives and careers for decades. Now they are both headlining an Apple TV+ comedy of wealth and status .

Nicholas Galitzine, known for playing princes and their modern equivalents, hopes his steamy new drama, “Mary & George,” will change how Hollywood sees him .

Ewan McGregor and Mary Elizabeth met while filming “Fargo” in 2017. Now married, they have reunited onscreen in “A Gentleman in Moscow.”

A reboot of “Gladiators,” the musclebound 1990s staple, has attracted millions of viewers in Britain. Is appointment television back ?

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

• Best Shows on Netflix
• Best Movies on Netflix
• F1 Live Stream
• Stranger Things Season 5
• Best New Movies
• Most Popular Movies on Netflix
• Best Shows on Disney+
• UFC Live Stream
• Best Movies on Disney+
• Entertainment

Monkey Man review: an intense, surreal revenge action movie

“Dev Patel's directorial debut is an unwieldy, feverish revenge thriller that wins you over despite its flaws.”

• Dev Patel's fully committed lead performance
• One breathtaking midpoint action sequence
• A well-paced, propulsive first half
• An overlong runtime
• Too much shaky cam
• A second half that stops and starts too many times

Monkey Man isn’t a kick or punch to the face. It’s an existential wail. Actor Dev Patel’s feature directorial debut, which was famously saved from its original Netflix release by Jordan Peele and Universal Pictures, doesn’t seem capable of holding back. It’s full of more disorienting stylistic flourishes than it knows what to do with and plenty of sweaty, bone-breaking action sequences, but pulsing beneath every one of its frames is an intense rage that is, at times, astonishing. Patel’s passion is never in doubt, and he believes so fervently in the film’s ideas about corruption and justice that he treats his protagonist’s familiar quest for revenge with a divine kind of reverence.

There are so many emotions, references, and inspirations spilling out of Monkey Man that one gets the sense watching it that Patel has been waiting his entire life to make it. The movie feels like the culmination of many of Patel’s artistic interests up to this point, and it’s clear that he put it together without assuming he’ll ever get the chance to direct another film like it. As admirable as that is, it’s also led Patel to stuff more into Monkey Man than it’s capable of containing. He’s delivered a vigilante thriller that doesn’t feel like a targeted strike so much as it does a violent thrashing, and the finished film is just as spirited and messy as that suggests.

At the center of Monkey Man is Kid (Patel), an unnamed young man who spends his days and nights in India boxing in underground matches and putting together a plan to find and kill Rana Singh (Sikandar Kher), the corrupt police chief responsible for his mother’s death years prior. In brief flashbacks, viewers are given glimpses of not only the gruesome tragedy that drives Patel’s anonymous vigilante forward but also the happy childhood memories he shared with his mother, which haunt him just as much as her death. These moments, in all their handheld, Malick-esque intimacy, are visually striking but do little more than obscure the full truth of Monkey Man ‘s inciting incident, which the film waits to reveal in a protracted sequence that just contributes further to its second act’s pacing issues.

• 7 best Jean-Claude Van Damme action movies, ranked
• Like Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill? Then watch these 3 great action movies right now
• 10 best action movie quotes, ranked

Before it gets there, though, Monkey Man spends much of its first half in the present. It follows its protagonist as he patiently works his way into the debaucherous club where Singh spends most of his nights. This section of the film, while slower than some may go into Monkey Man expecting, demonstrates a level of narrative control on Patel’s part that is immensely satisfying to behold. The movie’s script, which Patel co-wrote with Paul Angunawela and John Collee, wisely packs its first half with minor pay-offs that offer viewers key insight into its protagonist’s intelligence and determination and help Monkey Man slowly build more and more momentum. Eventually, everything reaches a fever pitch around the film’s midpoint with a batch of back-to-back set pieces that are as thrilling as they are anxiety-inducing.

The sequence in question marks Monkey Man ‘s emotional and stylistic high point. Through a deft combination of close-ups, shaky camera movements, and stunning pieces of action choreography, Patel is able to inject Monkey Man ‘s most feverishly constructed and hard-hitting section with a level of emotional ferocity that will make you lean forward in your seat. That is also, in no small part, due to Patel’s impassioned central turn. The actor, who has long been recognized by many as one of the most promising stars of his generation, throws himself so relentlessly into his character’s tortured psyche that he almost single-handedly reminds you why revenge stories came to be in the first place. You fully believe every emotion and attack that Patel performs in Monkey Man , and that adds a lot to the film, especially once it starts to lose its footing in its back half.

After turning everything up halfway through its story, Monkey Man deliberately slows down again to further explore its hero’s past and broaden its political ideas. Patel’s protagonist finds some much-needed refuge in this section with a group of transgender women who have long been hounded and terrorized by figures like Singh, who want to displace them, and this detour allows Monkey Man to sharpen its cultural critiques a little. The same goes for its late-stage centering of Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande), a powerful and revered religious figure. However, neither plotline is ultimately developed enough to render the film’s story as anything more nuanced than a familiar tale of an underdog fighting against the world’s corrupt elites.

Monkey Man ‘s third-act fights feel similarly unrefined. When the film begins, its hero is driven but not sure-footed enough to accomplish everything he wants. That fact makes Patel’s up-close, shaky approach to Monkey Man ‘s action sequences seem initially calculated and warranted. The longer into the movie one gets, though, the more frustrating Monkey Man ‘s uneven mix of shaky and steady camera takes becomes. One climactic showdown, in particular, suffers greatly from the visually unpleasant haze of smoke that covers it and the unsteady way it’s shot. The film, by no means, goes out with a whimper, but its final set pieces do fall short of the bar set by those that come before them.

What Monkey Man lacks in high-level technical craftsmanship, it makes up for in both attitude and spirit. This is a directorial debut made with so much passion and genuine emotion that you’ll inevitably find yourself admiring it even in its most frustrating moments. By all accounts, Patel’s road to making Monkey Man was plagued by multiple physical and mental hardships, and that’s clear in the film itself. It’s a movie that constantly feels as though it was forced into existence, and the sense of hard-won victory that is consequently present throughout it makes its most vengeful moments hit harder than they might have otherwise.

Monkey Man is now playing in theaters.

Editors' Recommendations

• Like Monkey Man? Then watch these 3 action movies now
• Like the Road House remake? Then watch these 3 action movies right now
• 3 great action movies on Tubi you need to watch in March 2024
• 3 most anticipated movies of spring 2024, ranked
• 3 action movies on Netflix you need to watch in March
• Product Reviews

After a long day, all you want to do is put your feet up and chill in front of the TV. And a good action movie can get you amped up for the weekend or the big meeting you have the next day at the office. There are great action movies on Amazon Prime Video, from old classics to new ones, and even remakes of old films.

On this list of three action movies on Prime Video you need to watch in March, for example, is a 2024 remake of the 1989 movie Road House. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the role originally played by the late Patrick Swayze, and fans of the original are excited to compare the twowhile those who never watched the '80s version will enjoy the exciting story for the first time. If you’re looking for something different, there are two other action movies on this list to consider this month as well. Road House (2024) Road House - Official Trailer | Prime Video

Spring is near, but before the weather gets nicer and the outdoors starts beckoning, there are bound to be some cold nights when you'll need to warm up with the best action movies on Netflix right now.

Netflix has invested heavily in its action collection over the past year, but more action movies also means a prolonged scrolling experience to find something worth watching. We did all the grunt work so you can get straight to the fun!

As one of the greatest superheroes in comic book history, Spider-Man has gotten the movie treatment many times in the past half-century. A total of 14 movies centered around the web-slinging hero have been made so far. While it may have taken a while for Spidey to get a film deserving of his character, the hero has now become amongst the cinema industry's most profitable IPs.

So now, with a third Spider-Verse film and Tom Holland's fourth solo adventure on the way, here's a chronological list of all the Spider-Man movies made so far.