The Ridiculous 6
The Ridiculous 6 is a 2015 American Western action comedy film directed by Frank Coraci and written by Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler. Starring Sandler, Terry Crews, Jorge Garcia, Taylor Lautner, Rob Schneider and Luke Wilson, the plot follows six men who discover that they share the same bank-robbing father, and thereafter set out to reunite with him.
Released worldwide on Netflix on December 11, 2015, the film was panned by critics and is one of the few films to receive an approval rating of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot
In the Old West, a calm man named Tommy, known as "White Knife" by the Native American tribe who raised him after his mother was murdered, is to marry a member of the tribe named Smoking Fox. Following a run-in with a deranged, Native American-racist food proprietor named Clem and the Left-Eye Gang led by Will Patch, Tommy is visited by a bank robber named Frank Stockburn who claims to be Tommy's biological father. Tommy explains to Frank that his mother was shot by a man with a tattooed hand when she was escorting him to school. Frank also tells Tommy that he is dying of consumption and had amassed $50,000 which he buried in a meadow next to a pine tree and is offering to Tommy and the Natives.The next day, a group of bandits with connections to Frank come to the village, led by the ruthless Cicero who wants Frank to give them his "big score" he gained a while back. Frank has the bandits kidnap him so he can lead them to the $50,000 at the so-called "Singing Windmill", in return for the bandits not attacking Tommy or the Indians. With no time to search the meadow and find the money, and to live to his tribe's standards, Tommy decides to resort to stealing from dishonorable persons to obtain the amount needed and save his father. During his quest, Tommy discovers that he has 5 half-brothers: Mexican burro rider Ramon whose innkeeper mother had a fling with Frank; mentally challenged yet happy-go-lucky Lil' Pete whose strong neck makes him immune to hanging; feral mountain-man Herm who speaks incomprehensibly and helped his mother sell their moonshine.
Tommy meets his last two half-brothers, Abraham Lincoln's former bodyguard Danny, who resorts to drinking from guilt of accidentally leading John Wilkes Booth to murder him; and African-American saloon pianist Chico who confesses to be half-White, when the brothers stole a large gold nugget from Chico's boss: the ever smiling sociopathic saloon owner Smiley Harris, who was part of Frank's gang until Frank stole his cut of their biggest score and left him to die at the windmill. When Smiley attempts to kill the brothers as revenge against Frank, he ended up being unintentionally decapitated by Ramon who was trying to knock him out.
Meanwhile, having joined the Left-Eye Gang at the cost of his only functional eye, Clem helps the bandits abduct Smoking Fox while searching for Tommy, before their captive ultimately eluded them while they learn of the brothers' exploits as they came to be known as the Ridiculous 6. The Left-Eye Gang soon catch up to the Ridiculous 6 while they were relaxing in a pond, overpowered but stealing their loot. But at Herm's notion, which Tommy translates through his mysticism, the brothers decide to rob from a gambling game in Yuma hosted by Ezekiel Grant and attended by Mark Twain and General George Armstrong Custer. Though Wyatt Earp nearly jeopardized their plan, the brothers succeed and head out to ransom their father, saving the Left-Eye Gang after learning they were left to die by Cicero while forcing them to reform and getting back the original $50,000.
As dusk falls, Tommy realizes through Danny's photograph of their father that Cicero is his mother's murderer, leaving his brothers in the cover of night to rescue his father and kill Cicero. The half-brothers, who followed Tommy along with the Left-Eye Gang, have a reunion with their long lost father, who reveals to have masterminded his abduction upon learning his sons exceed his expectations in amassing $100,000 and had taken Smoking Fox captive. But Tommy reveals his group had a Plan B: a hidden bomb inside the bag containing the ransom money. When the bomb explodes and commotion ensues, Frank runs off with Smoking Fox inside a mine. Tommy runs after them and successfully rescues his bride-to-be and captures his father. Back in the Native Village, Tommy weds Smoking Fox with his brothers in attendance. Since the revelation that their biological father Frank Stockburn was no more than a two-bit crook, the Native chief decides to adopt the half-brothers as he did with Tommy.
Cast
Production
The Ridiculous 6 had been in production by Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., but was dropped by all three. The latter dropped out soon after Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions signed a four-picture deal with Netflix, although an insider noted to The Hollywood Reporter that the deal had nothing to do with their decision.By January 2015, Netflix picked up the film with others joining the cast including Taylor Lautner, Nick Nolte, Blake Shelton, Steve Buscemi, Rob Schneider, Will Forte, Vanilla Ice and Luke Wilson. On February 16, 2015, Jorge Garcia joined the cast. Principal photography began on February 20, 2015, and ended on May 2, 2015.
Controversy
On April 23, 2015, Indian Country Today Media Network reported that approximately "a dozen Native actors and actresses, as well as the Native cultural advisor, left the set of Adam Sandler’s newest film production, The Ridiculous Six" in protest of its portrayal of the Apache culture. The New York Daily News later reported that there were only four who left, out of over 100 Native American actors on the set. Navajo Nation tribal members Loren Anthony and film student Allison Young said they left because they felt the film portrayed Native Americans in a negative light and took satire too far. They also complained that the portrayal of women was degrading. A representative of Netflix responded saying, "The movie has ridiculous in the title for a reason: because it is ridiculous. It is a broad satire of Western movies and the stereotypes they popularized, featuring a diverse cast that is not only part of—but in on—the joke."On May 4, 2015, the New York Daily News reported that Ricky Lee, one of the Native American actors on the Ridiculous 6 set, said previous news reports were exaggerated and indeed there were only "four actors who left, but there were 150 extras, including grandmas and grandpas and children, who kept working." Apparently, before the film's wrap party, he and several other actors were approached by Sandler to speak about the controversy. Lee considered that those who left raised legitimate issues but it was "the wrong battlefield."