But for one scene too cruel for the story to support, and one scene in which the hero is taught Christmas carols too maudlin to believe, "Will Penny" might have been the best cowboy movie in some time.

Perhaps we should make a distinction between Westerns and cowboy movies, one we can use when a film like Will Penny comes along. This isn't a Western; it's slung too close to the ground for that. But it is the best cowboy movie since Hud.

It’s not a lament for a passing way of life as much as it’s a look at the limits enforced by such a lifestyle.

'Will Penny' has a lovely, elegiac flow, with supple cinematography by the Lucien Ballard ('The Wild Bunch'), and a focus on character and place.