Alec Baldwin’s Tragedy-Marked Western ‘Rust’s Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Out

Originally set to be released years ago, indie western Rust by Joel Souza became the center of a large controversy because of the tragedy that happened during the filming back in 2021.

As you probably know, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed by a live round that was discharged from a prop revolver, which was fired between takes by Alec Baldwin, the film’s star. Director Souza was wounded in the shoulder by the same bullet.

The production faced several lawsuits in the meantime and after the final batch was dropped, they resumed production and the film finally premiered on a film festival in Poland. Now, it is set for a wide release and the first scores are out.

Rust is officially coming out today, on May 2, 2025, in American theaters and you can be sure that it is going to attract some attention. Still, the reasons behind that attention are quite grim and you can imagine that the movie will have a rough time on the big screens.

It is difficult to shake of the stigma of such a tragedy, even though the movie itself doesn’t have much to do with it. Crow, for example, featured the death of its star but eventually became a cult classic. Rust, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be heading in that same direction.

Namely, the first Rotten Tomatoes scores for the movie are out, and based on 21 ratings, the movie has a Rotten rating of just 48%, which is definitely not a good sign.

It is unknown how the movie will fare with other critics and the audiences, but based on the initial reactions, it seems that Rust will, indeed, have a very rusty theatrical run.

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