By Anne Brodie
Rachel Mason’s excruciatingly revealing documentary Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna lays out the circumstances of the shooting death of Halyna Hutchins, Director of Photography on the doomed Alec Baldwin western Rust. Mason, a close friend of Halyna was asked by Hutchins’ husband to make an investigative document of his wife’s completely avoidbale death inside a barebones church on the Santa Fe desert set. Work on the doc began immediately onset after the shooting, with witness statements from cast and crew with location footage including the “cart” that carried the four live bullets sadly intermingled with the required “dummies”. It was Oct 21, 2021. No live ammo is allowed on film sets but somehow four got by armourer Hannah Reid, who had little experience, whose father had been an armourer and “the fastest gun in the West”. She hired when two other armourers quit, and was responsible for the weapons, ammo and onset safety. Actor Frances Fisher says Reid often carried multiple weapons in her arms, a breach of safety rules and later when pressed by police could not account for the four live rounds found in the cart. We witness the moment in closeup, when Baldwin, seated inside the church, pulls the gun out of his holster and fires. He and the crew expected blank rounds but two people were shot. A bullet went through Hutchin’s chest and arm and into director Joel Souza’s abdomen. Hutchins died while being airlifted to hospital. Mason’s interviews are astounding; everyone thought everyone else had maintained due diligence, but it came to light there had been repeated failures to protect the set due to money and time crunches. Also, tragically, that day ten crew members had walked off the set citing the lack of preparedness. There are many excuses – no money no time, but they are hollow justice for Hutchins’ loved ones. To date the film has only screened in Poland but Hulu releases it in Canada and the US tomorrow.