Filmed in New Mexico, the Alec Baldwin Western “Rust” became infamous when work on the 2021 movie culminated in the accidental fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The Hulu documentary “Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna” re-examines what happened on the troubled set, and it features interviews with several people involved, some of whom express a bitter frustration with how the tragedy was discussed online. Actor Josh Hopkins, for example, calls the internet “the land of cowards,” which he found “enraging because they don’t know anything about a movie set and don’t know anything about the hearts of the people involved.”
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That he and his colleagues would focus on public outrage, when one might have expected anger directed toward their employers, is stunning. But the Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector assigned to the case (identified here only as Lorenzo) is blunt about where the focus should be: “Every worker in America has a right to a safe workplace.” In addition to Hutchins, “Rust” director Joel Souza was shot in the shoulder and survived.
In the immediate aftermath of that October day, it became clear this was not an unexplainable event. That’s reinforced in director Rachel Mason’s documentary, as well. “Every accident is preceded by a series of failures,” says the OSHA inspector. That anyone on set would direct their ire at the public’s response, rather than at those who oversaw this series of failures, is baffling. It’s also conspicuous that no one gives voice to the fear: That could have been me. Were career preservation instincts guiding what they were willing to say on camera?
Mason embarked on the documentary at the behest of Hutchins’ widower, Matthew Hutchins, who wanted her humanity re-centered. “But I realized I couldn’t make a film about her life unless I understood how she died,” Mason says in the film. Perhaps this is why she fails to capture who Hutchins was beyond some nice words spoken about her by close friends. Notably, Matthew is not interviewed. That’s understandable. It’s also a problem for the film. Despite its well-intentioned aims, “Last Take” reduces Hutchins’ life to the circumstances of her death.
If you were enraged when the story first broke, the documentary will re-enrage you all over again. Three people were held criminally liable for the shooting, despite the OSHA inspector’s opinion that there was “no way this is only limited to three people.”
The Hulu press materials are careful to phrase the involvement of the film’s star in passive terms: “A prop gun held by actor Alec Baldwin fired a live bullet.” Baldwin was also a producer on the film and he was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The case was dismissed after the judge ruled the prosecution had withheld evidence. (The film’s other producers are not discussed in the documentary.) Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. And first assistant director Dave Halls pled no contest to negligent use of a deadly weapon and was given six months probation. (The prosecutor tells Mason she also offered Gutierrez-Reed a deal that would have resulted in no jail time, but Gutierrez-Reed chose a trial instead.)
Budgets on independent films are always tight and there is intense pressure to stretch a dollar. “Where is management’s priority?” asks the OSHA inspector. “Are we pushing production, production, production over people’s safety due to money?”
OSHA ultimately issued something called a “willful citation.” According to the inspector, “There was enough input from management, enough knowledge, enough warning, enough complaints — all of these red flags — and management said, ‘Well, let’s just move on.’ We call that plain indifference.” A slide then appears on screen: “In February 2023, OSHA agreed to settle with ‘Rust’ Productions, who were not required to admit any wrongdoing.”
The film doesn’t ask about the decision-making behind this outcome, but a consistent theme emerges relating to the question of who is culpable. Clips from various TV interviews include one featuring Baldwin, who states that “someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.” Mason then cuts to a different clip featuring Hutchins’ husband. He sees things differently: “The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me. Every individual who touches a firearm has a responsibility for gun safety.”
Baldwin, his wife and their children are currently featured in a new TLC series about their lives. According to People magazine, this prompted a response from Hutchins’ family members: “Is his reality show just a veiled attempt to create sympathy for himself with a future jury pool in our civil case? Is this just a shameless attempt to portray him as the real victim in this case?” The same report notes that Baldwin “never called or tried to contact her parents or sister to say that he was sorry, and to this day he has never taken responsibility for Halyna’s death.” Hutchins is also survived by a young son.
Why was there real ammunition on set to begin with? How did those live rounds get mixed in with dummy rounds and loaded into Baldwin’s pistol? Nobody appears to have an answer. Early in the news cycle, one rumored theory took hold: Were crew members doing target practice? The film doesn’t address this possibility beyond a brief mention by the OSHA inspector: “Through our interviews, we were able to determine that no one was shooting recreationally on set.”
On the day of the shooting, Baldwin was interviewed by a sheriff’s detective and in the video he’s seen drawing a diagram to explain the setup: “I sat here, and the camera was here, and she was here, and Joel was here.” The detective stops him: “She being … Halyna?”
It’s striking that Baldwin refers to Souza by name but not Hutchins. Not long after, another detective says that Hutchins has died: “Joel’s still at the hospital. But the other person involved didn’t make it.” Once again, Souza is named and Hutchins is not. How quickly she has been downgraded to “the other person.”
In later footage, Baldwin and his wife confront a group of paparazzi and a photographer admits to not remembering Hutchins’ name. The Baldwins shame him, but their righteous indignation feels insincere considering Baldwin wasn’t using her name in that footage with detectives.
“There was an ugly frenzy” around the case, says Souza. “They sort of erased her from it really quickly.” He seems to be talking about the media. Another possible takeaway: The erasure was even broader.
At least the documentary puts Hutchins’ name right in the title.
“Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna” — 2.5 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Hulu
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
