Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Movie review

Friday, October 24, 2025

Movie review: Guns and Moses

Set against the wide-open skies of the California high desert, Guns & Moses unfolds as a peculiar, but compelling, hybrid: part Western, part murder mystery, part faith-rooted thriller. In the fictional town of High Desert, California - evoking many real-life Western towns - the film centers on Rabbi Moshe "Mo" Zaltzman, an Orthodox rabbi whose life of pastoral service is upended by violent antisemitic undertones—and who ends on an expedition into moral and kinetic warfare.

The film is directed by Salvador Litvak (with co-writing by his wife, Nina Davidovich Litvak.) It was made under the banner of the production company Pictures From The Fringe, which the Litvaks themselves run, producing films with Jewish-themed content. It is now available on Amazon Prime Video for rent.

The cast includes:

Mark Feuerstein as Rabbi Moshe Zaltzman.
Alona Tal as his wife Hindy Zaltzman.
Neal McDonough as Mayor Donovan Kirk.
Dermot Mulroney as Alan Rosner, a local benefactor.
Christopher Lloyd as Sol Fassbinder, a Holocaust-survivor figure.

The film opens with Rabbi Mo leading his congregation, a multi-generational, observant Jewish community in High Desert. The opening act features a gala at a rented synagogue tent, celebrating a major donation from Alan Rosner to build a new facility. This sets the scene: comfortable faith-based leadership, community cohesion, and a sense of quiet safety.

That safety is shattered when the gala is violently attacked: Alan Rosner is gunned down. The local police quickly arrest a young white-nationalist teen—Clay Gibbons—who has harassed the congregation and made gun-signs at the synagogue. But Rabbi Mo isn’t convinced: he senses there is more behind the attack than a straightforward hate crime. As the authorities settle on the suspect, Mo launches his own investigation, much to his family’s increasing vulnerability. Bodies begin to stack up, and Mo and Hindy must learn how to defend themselves—training in firearms under the aegis of a female bodyguard (Brenda) who teaches both Rabbi and wife the basics of gun-handling—and you just know where that leads.

Mo must wrestle both his role as spiritual leader and the reality that to protect his flock (and his own family) he may have to wield a gun. The late-act arc is a twist on the classic Western: not lone (rabbi) lawman up against bad guys, but his family and others, setting up a standoff and forced confrontation.

What distinguishes Guns & Moses from many Hollywood treatments of Jews is that the Jewish characters are portrayed with texture, authenticity, and dignity. Rabbi Mo is observant, rooted in community, not a side-character or token. He wears his black suit and hat; his faith is not the punchline but part of his identity—yet the film invites him into a trajectory rarely seen: rabbi -turned-gunslinger.

Hindy, his wife, is not sidelined: she too participates in the defensive measures. The film treats their family as a unit under threat, rather than making Mo a lone wolf. The inclusion of Sol Fassbinder (Lloyd) as a Holocaust-survivor character injecting generational memory into the plot gives the film extra moral weight. The film also uses the song Kol HaOlam Kulo as a plot point—this lends a distinct Jewish cultural resonance throughout.

In short: the Jewish angles feel on-target. Many Hollywood films struggle with Jewish authenticity; here the setting, rituals and even the moral vocabulary feel coherently grounded. Feuerstein and company do a decent job with American Jewish Hebrew pronunciation.

The plot is somewhat contrived: the number of coincidences, the “rabbi-becomes-gunfighter” arc, and the final scene between the rabbi and the murderer is a bit out there. This is not to say the film fails, but if you lean too hard into realism you’ll find places where suspension of disbelief is required.

Then again, as the body count goes up, so must the suspension of disbelief.

If it didn't have a Jewish theme, I would probably only give it 3 stars out of 5, but that added an extra dimension making it four stars.

This is almost certainly the first movie that includes in the credits the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Berditchever Rebbe (for a nigun sung towards the climax) and the Holy One Above.

Guns & Moses may not reinvent cinema, but it stakes a claim as one of the more distinctive entries in the faith-thriller genre. Its blending of Jewish communal life with Western motifs—faith, family, frontier justice—gives it something different to say. For viewers tired of one-dimensional portrayals of Jews in Hollywood, this film offers an Orthodox rabbi who is thoughtful, conflicted, and courageous - not a side character but the hero of his story. For that alone, the film merits attention.