Most Westerns show something totally unrealistic. This shows something like it would actually have been.First, everyone is poor. The trapper family have always been poor. Their neighbours were once prosperous cattle ranchers, but their cattle are gone. They are reduced to trapping, but they don't have much skill with it. They trap illegally on the land of the trapper family.The head of the family, whose wife has died, is religious and puts up with it. But his brother-in-law gets offended and feels the need to do something about it.Separately from this, the daughter of the house is seeing one of the sons of the former rancher.All this happens shortly after the Southern defeat in the US Civil War. Both the rancher family and the returned brother-in-law fought for the South. The brother-in-law is haunted by memories - what we'd now call Post-Traumatic Stress.A slow-burning conflict develops from there. Not exactly an action movie, but showing the grim reality that most films ignore. It clearly doesn't please those who expect Westerns to be like live-action video games.

Set in the Southern U.S. shortly after the Civil War, Echoes Of War stars James Badge Dale as a former Confederate soldier who shows up at the home of his brother-in-law, played by Ethan Embry, to visit his sister's grave and see his niece, played by Maika Monroe, and nephew, played by Owen Teague. For the majority of this film, the Hatfield/McCoy-type conflict is truly much ado about nothing. Seriously, not a thing really happens in this film. Not a thing! I probably should have thrown in the towel during the first twenty minutes and headed for the exits. Oh well.I don't know how you can make a film this dull and expect anyone to sit through an hour and a half of it, let alone remotely like it. All I can say is, if you value your time...don't waste it on this! 2 Stars

Screenwriters John Chriss and Kane Senes have provided a screenplay filled with way too many western cliché's and not enough original content. Re Senes' direction, the sluggish pace causes this film to spiral out of control. The acting in the film is also weak. James Badge Dale is very one dimensional in his role as the war veteran. William Forsythe's character is also a lost cause: acting as the antagonist in the film, you neither understand, nor do you care about the events of his past that have lead to the person he is now. Echoes of War is a film that struggles to resonate any true enjoyment for its viewers. A story that is not original and is in fact quite boring, it is destined to ride off into the sunset and out of our memories very quickly. Don't waste one second of your time on this film. You can thank me later!

When you have made a film as inept as Echoes of War is, perhaps the only way to try and persuade anyone to take a chance on watching it is to post bogus user reviews about it. Case in point: read some of the user reviews with 9 & 10 star ratings and it is glaringly apparent that someone involved in the film has composed them in an effort to hoodwink filmgoers. I mean come on, comparing the director Kane Senes to Clint Eastwood? Really? I think not!Regarding this film, save your cash for a Lone Ranger marathon. The dialog in this was contrived, the scenes as predictable as a TV-movie, and yet the biggest sin was its dull premise with talking heads you don't really care too much about. Who do you blame for a film like this? The actors for not delivering stellar performances, the writers for a flawed script, or the director for not getting the right delivery out of an actor? In this case you can't really blame the cast even though the performances for the most part were non-riveting. The fault lies squarely in the writing which was lame, plus the direction screams inexperience. Putting bodies in period costumes doesn't make a film a Western. And it DEFINITELY DOESN'T make you comparable to Mr. Eastwood!