In the hills of Oklahoma Territory, circa 1906, a scraggly man by the name of Henry lives with his teenage son Wyatt, eking out a life as a quiet farmer. He says very little and tries to avoid confrontation as best he can. But, once they spot an errant horse out in the distance, Henry’s dangerous past begins to come out little by little, leading to a brutally explosive confrontation.
And that’s the problem with Old Henry: you want to say so much about it, but you know that if you say much more, you’ll give away the hornet’s nest twist of the flick. And, man alive, does it make an already good film into an absolutely great one.
Essayed by Tulsan Tim Blake Nelson—quite honestly the finest actor working in westerns these days, if you ask me—the character of Henry is old, dirty and disheveled, spending most of his time working in the fields, barking orders to his kid. But his son Wyatt doesn’t get him and his ways, threatening to leave the farm numerous times. Still, Henry is determined to keep from boiling over.