Everybody loves year-end top 10 lists except me�at least when it comes time to reflect on the year in movies just ended. It�s a frustrating task. The majority of films reviewed in the New York Times will never reach Milwaukee cinemas and the number of non-Hollywood movies shown on local screens declined in 2008 from past years. Also, two Oscar contenders won�t open here until January: Revolution...

The first sound is of pounding hooves and the first sight is of three horsemen hurrying over the crest of a dun-colored hill, framed by the wooden gate to a ranch in desolate country. The city marshal and his deputies have come to arrest one of the hired hands for rape and murder, but the landowner, a man called Bragg (Jeremy Irons), stands firm.