The Hero is a sublime epistle to the silver screen specter cast by Sam Elliott.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 17, 2024

While the film is a journeyman effort, The Hero's love for Elliott shines through in every scene. If you want to see an oft-supporting player get his due, this is the film.

| Apr 13, 2021

Sam Elliott is in almost every frame, bringing an easy charm that solidifies his leading man status while smoothing over the film's rough patches.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 1, 2021

The Hero is about as good as these stories get without someone masterfully inventive behind the camera, and it doesn't aim much higher than merely being effective.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 24, 2020

The Hero is perfectly ragged around the edges, but rugged and elegant at its core, like many of our heroes. Seek this one out, partner.

| May 7, 2020

With more emotions than the exegetes of Westerns would have preferred, [director Brett] Haley achieves an honest and luminous movie. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Apr 3, 2020

It's Elliott's insight that makes a film like The Hero, which covers absolutely no new ground in the memento mori subgenre of drama, feel almost essential.

| Mar 25, 2020

The Hero is all about the journey. And this one is slow, languid and reflective, just like Sam Elliott. There's a quiet brooding to the film that is both poignant and wistful.

| Oct 30, 2019

Elliott is as magnetic as ever, but very little here feels authentic.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 28, 2019

The Hero is at its best when it drifts through Lee's pain and rich inner life, regardless of whether mining his foibles or comedy or tragedy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 17, 2019

The pacing problem becomes more apparent, and the story falls flat with so many people putting so much into it.

| Original Score: 6.5/10 | May 24, 2019

Sam Elliot's performance, maybe his best, is a big reason to see this film but the thought-provoking story, with its heart and hopefulness, is a winner as well.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2019

This is a film where the lead performance is great but the movie he's in is average.

| Original Score: B- | Mar 13, 2019

Watching Sam Elliott work [...] has been one of the great joys of entertainment, and never has he had a role quite like Lee Hayden, leading a movie quite like "The Hero."

| Feb 10, 2019

It's a theme that's been done hundreds of times before, but somehow this story manages to feel fresh.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 20, 2018

An aging cowboy actor needs much more than to just smoke weed and stare at the ocean to have much of an impact. Unfortunately, that mostly what The Hero has to offer.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 31, 2018

Elliott is perfect here. "The Hero" encapsulates everything you love about him into one package.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 10, 2018

The Hero is a darned good movie, full of heart and dignity, a simple tale of reconciliation.

| Aug 25, 2018

Lee's legacy is inextricably tied to these characteristics, and Lee looks into the abyss and ponders what it has meant, and will mean, to play himself.

| Aug 23, 2018

There are a number of ups and downs throughout The Hero, but such plot points are all in service of rendering a more complete picture of Lee's heartaches.

| Aug 21, 2018