Ron Howard, the least daring film maker alive, was just the wrong person to put in charge of making a western. Sure enough, he is careful not to say anything that would offend anyone, and as a result all you get is a bland movie where everything is sort of cancelled out by everything else. Frontier women are strong and self-reliant, except that sometimes they need help from menfolk. Indian warriors are brave and good, except that some of them are evil and brutal. Violence is tragic, except sometimes it's the only way. The white settlers really want to be nice to the good Indians, but somehow they all get killed in the big gun battle. So of course it's nobody's fault they're all gone. Nothing happens here that didn't happen in LAST OF THE MOHICANS, except with no romance at all and very dull characters mucking about in dirt and snow and looking miserable.<br /><br />What would have made this movie work would have been a strong love story between Cate Blanchett and -- well, not Tommy Lee Jones, but maybe some powerful Mexican landowner or something. Like they get down to Mexico and Cate's daughter has been stolen, so she has to see the incredibly rich and aristocratic Mexican governor, who is an older man and a widower. And he helps her get her daughter back, riding by her side like a guardian and protector, only he and Cate fall madly in love so at the end she stays on in Mexico living in his hacienda and being treated like a queen. And instead of Cate in the dirt and snow all the time you would see her enjoying new clothes and new surroundings and trying on jewelry and things like that, with her very distinguished husband sort of smiling at her in the background. And her bratty daughter could just marry some nice young officer.<br /><br />And Tommy Lee Jones could get eaten by a pack of Gila monsters.