Forsaken (2015) is a somber, character-driven Western that tells a story of estrangement, redemption, and the enduring scars of violence. Set in the late 1800s, the film stars Kiefer Sutherland as John Henry Clayton, a former gunslinger who returns to his hometown in Wyoming after years away, hoping to leave behind a bloody past and reconcile with his aging father, Reverend Samuel Clayton, played by Donald Sutherland.
John Henry arrives to find a town on the brink of collapse, gripped by fear and corruption. A ruthless land baron named James McCurdy is using intimidation and hired guns to force local farmers off their land. While John Henry tries to keep a low profile and reconnect with his father—who disapproves deeply of his son’s violent history—his presence begins to stir unrest among the townspeople and draw attention from McCurdy’s enforcers.
Haunted by the horrors he witnessed during the Civil War and his time as a notorious gunfighter, John Henry seeks peace, working quietly as a farmhand and trying to make amends with his father. But when McCurdy’s gang targets a family friend, and violence creeps closer to home, John Henry is forced to confront the reality that some evils cannot be ignored.
The tension between father and son provides the film’s emotional core. Samuel, a man of faith and moral conviction, believes in forgiveness but struggles to understand the path his son has taken. Their relationship is further complicated by John Henry’s unresolved feelings for Mary Alice Watson, his former love, who is now married to another man.
As McCurdy’s threats escalate, and the town’s fear deepens, John Henry must decide whether to uphold his vow of peace or once again take up arms. When the brutality becomes too much to ignore, he reclaims his weapons in a gripping, final act of justice. The violence is swift, precise, and heartbreaking—carried not with pride, but with the weight of necessity.
Forsaken is a modern Western with old-fashioned sensibilities. It’s not about grand shootouts or high-speed action, but about family, conscience, and the cost of a life shaped by violence. With restrained performances, especially from the real-life father-son duo of the Sutherlands, and a visually rich depiction of the American frontier, the film delivers a quiet, thoughtful meditation on redemption and the complicated legacy of a gunfighter trying to lay his past to rest.
