The Unholy Trinity (MA) – 93 minutes

Of late, big screen movie Westerns have all but gone the way of the dodo bird, so The Unholy Trinity is a welcome change of pace.

It is tense in Montana in 1873 just moments before Isaac Broadway’s (Tim Daly) execution when he spots his estranged son in the crowd.

Isaac makes a beeline for Henry (Brandon Lessard) to say that he can’t rest until the man who framed him gets what is coming to him.

In short, he prevails upon law abiding Henry to travel to the remote town of Trinity – that Isaac had a large hand in building – to murder the sheriff there.

But there is a problem because while intent on fulfilling his promise, once Henry arrives he ends up targeting the wrong man.

You see the sheriff Isaac wanted killed is already dead, only Henry doesn’t know it.

In turns out that Trinity is nothing but a lawless old West town and there are plenty who can’t stomach the new, upstanding sheriff Gabriel Dove (Pierce Brosnan).

And there is one man shadowing Henry, who seems to keep showing his face at just the right time.

That is a mysterious figure named St Christopher (Samuel L Jackson), but what is he all about and why is he following Henry?

Truth be told, that has everything to do with a treasure trove of stolen gold.

Now staying alive in Trinity is no straight forward exercise as Henry will discover at close hand.

It took me a while to understand just what was going down here, in other words who was doing what to whom and why.

The Unholy Trinity is the work of a couple of Victorians, writer Lee Zachariah and director Victorian College of the Arts’ graduate Richard Gray.

The plotting is quite convoluted, before the various threads come together in the final minutes.

So it is that the conceit has been stage managed to lead to the inevitable shoot out where many get their comeuppance.

Two names loom large throughout.

Samuel L. Jackson all but licks his chops in a “look at me” performance. 

He has a cat that ate the cream grin and a swagger up from the get go. He carries both with distinction throughout.

Pierce Brosnan is positively stoic as the ageing sheriff who would like nothing more than to see the riff raff “out of Dodge”, but is having a hard time of it.

Fresh faced Brandon Lessard takes on a naive persona as Henry Broadway, while the bad guys have no intention of putting down their guns.

Of course not. Their job is to scowl and scrap until they get what is coming to them.

I liked seeing the traditional Western production design (as referenced at the outset, it has been a while since I last saw a Western).

And I don’t believe it is giving too much away (spoiler alert) to say that the whole thing is neatly wrapped up with a bow on top.

All is right with the world when the dudes wearing the white hats inevitably win the day.

While hardly an award-winner, Samuel L. Jackson’s showing alone packs the necessary punch to elevate what would otherwise have been a decidedly more pedestrian offering.

Rated MA, The Unholy Trinity scores a 6 out of 10.

It is available to screen on digital platforms from 16^th July, 2025.