When Henry Broadway stepped off the stagecoach into the hard-packed dirt streets of Trinity, he wasn’t sure what to expect. He had just spent his last dime to travel here with one intent in mind: Kill the sheriff.
Henry’s father had set him on this journey several days before. As the beleaguered older man had walked to the rickety wooden gallows to be hung for murder, he stopped to embrace his son. Through a quick and whispered conversation he made Henry promise to seek out Sheriff Saul Butler of Trinity: He was the foul liar who falsely set one Isaac Broadway up for murder.
The senior Broadway demanded justice. “Look to God for your reward,” he hissed. And though Henry had no idea what vengeance and God’s reward might have in common, he took his Pa’s last words to heart.
What Henry didn’t know was that there was another fellow in the public hanging’s crowd of onlookers who knew his father well. The smiling face of a former slave, named St. Christopher, was the last thing his father saw before the rough rope snapped tight around his throat.
Isaac didn’t even have time for the gasp he would have uttered.
Henry also didn’t know that St. Christopher was determined to head to the dusty town of Trinity as well. But not for murder. No, St. Christopher intended to follow young Henry and use him for his own purposes. Those purposes included locating a hidden stash of stolen gold that he and Isaac obtained together years ago.
As Henry steps wide-eyed into Trinity and squeezes the sweaty grip of the pistol in his pocket, he happens to at that moment spot the town’s sheriff. The man was walking toward the town’s small, single roomed church. Henry follows. He walks up on the kneeling lawman, his hand unsteady, his breath quick and shallow.
But there’s something else Henry doesn’t know: Sheriff Saul Butler is already dead.
And the man with his back turned to him is no fool.
Trinity’s new lawman, Sheriff Gabriel Dove, is a good man. Like his name might imply, he’s an older officer who prefers peacefully talking through problems over spilling blood. He takes the time to reason out the town’s crimes and stands by those whom he believes to be innocent. (That said, it’s also implied that Sheriff Dove has no problem with killing when it’s demanded.)
The sheriff’s wife, Sarah, is much like him. She takes on the role of doctor and midwife in town and cares for the saloon girls who find themselves pregnant. In fact, by the film’s end it appears that the Doves have adopted two orphan girls.
One of the innocents the sheriff defends is a Blackfoot native woman who was falsely accused of killing someone. Several townsmen angrily want to lynch her.
Henry also appears to be a person who is at least innocent of the harshness of his world. He sets out for revenge only to honor his father. As the facts of his father’s past in Trinity are revealed, Henry strives to stand with Sheriff Dove to do the right thing. The sheriff offers to give the young man a new home and a fresh start.
(In contrast to these four characters, the rest of those we meet are far less likeable. And though St. Christopher is somewhat sympathetic because of the slavery he endured in the past, he is a manipulative individual who will go to any deadly extent to reach his goals.)
The movie repeatedly winks at the idea that though the “church” is a part of the people’s lives, few people actually adhere to godly principles. Henry, for instance, initially refuses to drink and attests to having no worldly experience. But he quickly gives in to the lure of drinking whiskey and goes upstairs with a pretty prostitute. And his initial reticence to kill becomes far less so with time.
Later, though, Henry wonders if the bad things that befall him might be due to God’s judgement for his less-than-upright actions, including his sexual relationship with a prostitute. The man whom he’s talking to retorts, “Some would say it’s a sin not to be with a woman.”
An actor is hired to portray a priest. He talks about turning to God while officiating at a hanging. But he turns out to be a man with no compunction against murder. Henry says to someone, “I don’t think he’s a real priest.” Someone else responds, “Maybe Lutheran!”
When Henry talks to his father about seeing his mother again in the afterlife, Isaac replies, “I won’t see her for the flames.” And though Isaac tells his son, “Your house is the house of God,” he isn’t really speaking of faith.
Someone balks at the idea that Isaac Broadway was a Christian. He suggests that if he was a Christian, they should “tear down every church and reconsecrate the ground they were built on.”
Henry follows a saloon girl up to a bedroom. Caressing, kissing and partial breast nudity are present. We see St. Christopher in bed with a pregnant woman after having sex. They both are dressed in fully covering undergarments.
It’s implied that one of the saloon girl’s children may have been sired by Sheriff Dove.
We see some physical mistreatment of people, including one man slamming another man’s head to a table, someone being kicked down the saloon steps, a guy being beaten by a group and women being roughly manhandled by thuggish male customers. That said, most of the violence happens at gun point.
Multiple shootouts feature both men and women blazing away at each other with pistols, rifles and shotguns. Many people get shot in the chest, back and head. Some fall over dead, others grasp their wounds and crawl for cover while bleeding heavily. In one instance, a father weeps profusely over his fallen son.
In several instances, the fighting and shooting get quite personal. In one scene, for instance, a thuggish man slaps a woman around, but she then shoots him in the shoulder with a small pistol. He slaps her down and shoots her in the back. Someone else fires upon the attacker several times as he runs out. We later see that man dead in the street in a pool of blood.
Another similar battle takes place in a pig pen where two men beat and pound at one another until one of them is killed by someone who walks up and slashes his throat open. After that we see a group of pigs eating the man’s corpse. A bartender is shot point blank for no apparent reason.
Henry gets dragged through an open window and beaten profusely. He’s then strung up in a barn by his ankles and beaten again. Several women are wounded by gunshots. A pastor is gunned down outside his church. And then his attacker is shot and dies after setting the building ablaze.
Henry takes a shotgun blast to the leg.
Five f-words and five s-words lead the profanity growling pack here along with multiple uses each of “b–ch,” “a–,” “d–n” and “h—.”
God and Jesus’ names are also misused nine total times (seven of those blending God with “d–n”).
People toss back shots of whiskey repeatedly. One guy smokes a cigarette.
Henry is beaten down in a pig pen and has his face ground down in pig dung. St. Christopher tells Henry that his father sold him into slavery.
With a title like The Unholy Trinity you might expect this movie to be one that’s either deeply religious or slanted toward horror. But even though there is a light theme of redemption and tarnished godliness here, you shouldn’t go in expecting any Book of Revelation deep dives.
The Unholy Trinity is more of an old-fashioned Western. It’s populated with itchy fingered gunslingers; backstabbing deceivers; a lust for ill-gotten gold; a God-fearing son seeking vengeance; and an honest lawman trying to navigate that thin line between right and wrong.
As Westerns go, then, this tale about a trouble-bound watering hole called Trinity is fairly well-made. That’s thanks in no small part to the seasoned acting chops of stars Pierce Brosnan and Samuel L. Jackson.
All of that said, however, those seeking Wild West fare should also take careful note that in this case, the story also comes with heavy drinking, a few foul-mouthed fracases, flesh-baring saloon girls and bloody shootouts.
One character grumbles, “I’m not the devil, son, just a sinner.” And that acknowledgement fits just about everyone in Trinity like a dusty hat and a pair of Colt six-shooters.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
