Rourke plays tyrant in `The Last Outlaw'

JAKARTA (JP): In Geoff Murphy's The Last Outlaw, Mickey Rourke plays Graff, a former Confederate officer who refuses to accept that the civil war has ended and keeps on robbing Yankee banks.

To his men, Graff is a tyrant whose orders cannot be ques tioned. He rules with an iron hand.

Dermot Mulroney portrays Eustis, Graff's right-hand man, who first idolizes his superior, but becomes alarmed as the man he holds in high esteem becomes unbearably totalitarian.

A heated debate flares up when Graff tells Eustis to kill one of his men, Loomis (Daniel Quinn), who was seriously wounded in a shootout following a bank heist.

What is interpreted as a mercy-killing by Graff is construed as cold-blooded murder by the others.

This time, Eustis does not follow orders. And when Graff is about to assume the role of executioner himself, Eustis, on an impulse, shoots Graff, leaving him for dead.

A posse finds Graff still alive and takes him into custody.

Graff tells Sheriff Sharp (Gavan O'Herlihy) and bank owner McClintock (Richard Fancy) that he has been betrayed by his men. He promises them cooperation, setting the scene for methodical and cruel revenge.

Revenge at its fullest, however, cannot be exacted before the cunning Graff gets rid of the sheriff and the bank owner.

The scene in which Graff forces Eustis to deal out the coup de grace to the mutilated Loomis is definitely not for the faint- hearted.

Although predictable, the ending scene surprisingly delivers, as Eustis finally comes to terms with himself.

The Last Outlaw is a man's film.

Fifty-five-year-old Geoff Murphy, is a New Zealand filmmaker and musician now residing in the United States. A previous film, was Young Guns II, a Morgan Creek production.

Void of light moments and burdened by a somber mood, the film is redeemed from tedium by effective spots of good acting.

-Tony Ryanto