As we previously reported, director John Hillcoat (The Proposition) was hired to make a short film made from Rockstar's new video game Red Dead Redemption.  So what does "made from" mean?  It means that the movie was created in game rather than animated from scratch.  However, the trailer for the short film leaves me confused as to whether or not the short will feature the characters in the game or be done using the characters you can create in multiplayer.   The trailer shows off a lot of clips that are in the game rather than something new, so I'm confused.

The short is airing on Fox this Saturday night at midnight.  Since I imagine not a lot of people will be up to see it, I hope that Fox puts the film online not long after.

Hit the jump for trailer along with my brief thoughts on the game.

Click over to IGN to see the trailer in high resolution.

The quickest way to describe Red Dead Redemption is "Grand Theft Auto set in the old West."  However, I think it's a much better game that GTA IV, which I found to be highly overrated.  Red Dead doesn't have people calling you on your cell phone to hang out every five seconds, has a lot more you'll have to do in order to obtain 100% completion, and it has a better checkpoint and warp system.  The story starts out a little slow but as it moves along you get sucked in and appreciate the complexities of protagonist John Marston.  Also, the characters' need for chatter during trips feels very Rockstar rather than keeping with the spaghetti western tone set by the rest of the game.  But on the whole, the game has lived up to my high expectations.  My only strong criticism is that Rockstar needs to release a patch because the game is glitchy to the point of hilarity.

I haven't really tried out the multiplayer since most players on Xbox Live seem to feel that unless they utter a racial or homophobic slur every five seconds they'll die.  However, if you're not a total ass-hat, you can send me a friend request at "S_Pilgrim".