The Last Son is a western that puts on airs of Greek tragedy, complete with self-fulfilling prophecies, incest, filicide, and parricide. It’s also divided into chapters, emulating the episodes in a Greek drama. And in lieu of a choir, we get a voiceover narration. Screenwriter Greg Johnson and director Tim Sutton know the words but not the music.
Of all the possible Greek tragic elements, the one this movie lacks the most, and without which the rest are worthless, is pathos. The characters fail to inspire empathy because they are never anything more than archetypes.
