Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' Brings Neither Comfort Nor Closure To Halyna Hutchins' Legacy

After many, many headlines about the fatal October 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, "Rust" has finally been released in theaters.

Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is behind bars, serving 18 months for her role in the fatal shooting, while charges against star Alec Baldwin were dismissed in July 2024.

In an ironic twist, the film's premise also involves an accidental shooting. Set in 1880s Wyoming, Lucas Hollister is a 13-year-old boy looking after his little brother Jacob following the tragic death of his parents. After he accidentally shoots the father of a boy who stole Jacob’s candy while trying to shoot a wolf, Lucas is sentenced to death by hanging.

Who should break him out of prison, of course, is the grandfather he never knew he had – Harland Rust – played by none other than Baldwin himself. The two try to evade the law by escaping to Mexico while trying to avoid both the law, in the form of Marshal Wood Helm, and bounty hunters, like Fenton “Preacher” Lang. The film is beautifully shot and contains Hutchins's clear talent, which cinematographer Bianca Cline tried to emphasize with her own work, but the multiple perspectives bog down the narrative instead of adding to its complexity.

This might scratch an itch if you're a fan of Westerns, but for fans of the genre, there are much better films that have already been released. The acting in the film is just okay, although Baldwin's performance seems to improve in the latter half of the film, no doubt wearied by the real-life shooting that he had a hand in.

On October 21, 2021, the "30 Rock" actor was holding a gun while they were rehearsing a scene inside a church. Although he denies pulling the trigger, the gun went off, striking and killing Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, who later went on to complete the film. Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter in January 2023, only for those charges to be dropped a few months later.

Charges were refiled in January 2024, and the actor went to court in July 2024 for only three days before a Santa Fe judge determined that the prosecutor knew about evidence that they failed to turn over to the defense. Charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning that Baldwin could never again face criminal charges for his role in the shooting.

It's impossible to watch the film and not think about Baldwin's trial and its effect on his seven children, as his wife Hilaria Baldwin describes in their TLC reality series "The Baldwins." It's also difficult to think of the impact that it had on Halyna's son and her husband, Matthew Hutchins, who agreed to become an executive producer on the film following a settlement.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the indie film currently has a score of 46% at the time of this writing.

David Fear of Rolling Stone wrote, “The fact that Hutchins’ work here is the best thing the movie has going for it only compounds both the irony and the tragedy” while Kyle Smith of the Wall Street Journalnotes, “The Old West is a savagely twisted moral landscape: Good men might be mistaken for bad ones, and vice versa. The insight lacks freshness but makes for a reasonably compelling inspiration for the western ‘Rust.’”

Cole Groth of FandomWireopined, “It’s difficult to separate the film from the tragedy that shaped it, but what remains is a quietly moving story of redemption and connection.” Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporterpenned, “The film is competently made and absorbing at times, but there’s a workaday quality that slows its momentum. It’s a handsomely made project, but a story about such a complicated set of characters should make us feel more strongly.”

When speaking about his movie to Vanity Fair last year, Souza said that his main motivation for completing the film was to pay tribute to Halyna Hutchins’ work.

“I knew that the movie being finished would financially benefit Halyna’s family, which is very important to me,” he told the publication. “And I know this can sound trite for people who aren’t creative, but her last work matters. People seeing her last work matters. That was the tipping point for me in the decision.”

“As a cinematographer, Halyna should have been out of my reach if this business made any sense, but it doesn’t,” he continued. “She should have been doing big studio movies. She should have outgrown a movie the size of ours. She should have been doing $100 million movies, not $7.5 million movies. Anybody who worked with her knew what she had and what she was.”