David Wenham (of the Lord Of The RingsTrilogy) and Joseph Fiennes (of Enemy At The Gates play two brothers, Luke and Elijah respectively in the early days of the settling of the Western United States.

When a common street thug who goes by the name of Edge breaks into the apartment of an old woman he refers to as 'Prune,' she knocks him out and starts telling him a story about the two cowboys. He's uninterested at first, but when she's taken away to the hospital he continues to sneak in to visit her to find out the rest of the story. As it turns out, she knows the location of a sizable amount of gold that the pair of cowboys were involved with, and Edge owes quite a bit of money to some people who you don't necessarily want to owe money to.

As Prune relates her story to Edge, the movie shifts back and forth from the Wild West to the wilds of Europe of that period and we find out that Elijah and Luke's relationship took a turn for the dysfunctional when they both fell for the same woman – a French immigrant working at a whorehouse named Lilith.

Things of course get more complicated when Elijah marries her. Luke ends up living in Europe for a while and getting involved with a tribe in Macedonia and it's here where the film really starts to get interesting as his American presence stands out in stark contrast to the natives with whom he has to deal with as they go to war with the invading Turkish forces.

Ultimately you know that Luke and Elijah are going to have to face their inner demons as well as each other, and it's interesting how the director (Milcho Manchevski) works that conflict into the story taking place in the present day between Edge and Prunce.

Dust is an interesting film in that it deftly blends some scenes of brutal violence with some contrasting scenes of great beauty. The movie is very pleasing to the eye and is shot in such a manner that even during the slower parts of the film, your eyes will still be kept interested in what happens on screen, particularly the scenes that take place in Europe where the scenery and backgrounds are quite breathtaking.

The filmmakers pull both the period story and the modern day story together very nicely, juxtaposing each part with skill and ultimately tying up the themes of redemption and enlightenment in a satisfying and mysterious package.

But Western fans, don't let that disillusion you – there are still plenty of shoot outs in here that would have given Peckinpah a run for his money in the on screen carnage category. The bullet play in this movie is as relentless as it is ugly. Don't expect John Woo style bullet ballet here, cause it's nowhere to be scene. When people die, they go down fast and hard. No one is jumping sideways through the air with twin .45s blaring.

Overall, Dust is a pretty interesting film. It's weird, it's touching, it's bloody and it's violent. It almost transcends genre classification at times and makes you think, but at the same time offers enough action and suspense to keep even the most jaded viewer interested. I can't see it appealing to a larger audience but those who do get a chance to check it out would do well to go in with an open mind.

Video:

Dust is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.78.1 and is enhanced for 16x9 sets. The transfer is quite nice with bold colors when called for and more subtle hues when necessary. It also transitions nicely from black and white in a few scenes and then reverts back to color for the rest of the movie. There is a mild amount of grain in some of the darker scenes that is harder to spot during the lighter ones, but it's nothing to really complain to loudly about and overall this is quite a nice looking job.