Coming Soon: The Magnificent Seven

As the release date of September 23rd edges closer, the public interest for The Magnificent Seven only appears to grow. Recently praised for a very diverse cast, the film's director Antoine Fuqua played down this idea, saying that everyone simply worked hard on the movie. His last remake, The Equalizer did not fair that well with me, so I'm hoping that he's back to his sharp self with this one.

Check out the official trailer for The Magnificent Seven below.

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coming soon, western,

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Crowdfunding Push: Blackpoint's Daughter

In a previous couple of years, some fantastic Neo-Westerns were made all over the world. With films like Bone Tomahawk, Das finstere Tal and The Salvation, it is clear that this genre is currently attracting excellent filmmakers. Now, a director by the name of Marika S. Cotter needs help in finishing her project in the same domain called Blackpoint's Daughter. Here is what the film’s Indiegogo page states:

Blackpoint's Daughter is a soulful Neo-Western set deep in the haunting wilderness of the Santa Lucia Mountains. It's about the daughter of a hitman who must embrace her violent roots in order to save her sister from a deranged crime boss bent on revenge.

Being that this is a full-length film, Cotter divided the project into phases and this is the first one. Currently, the campaign generated about one-third of the targeted funds with one day to go. Check out Blackpoint's Daughter official Indiegogo campaign and see if you can help out.

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Crowdfunding, western,

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Film Review: The Hateful Eight (2015)

Copyright: The Weinstein Company

With The Hateful Eight, the movie that Quentin Tarantino delivered is for me similar in quality to Django Unchained, which makes it a contender for the worst films he created in his career. Of course, Tarantino’s worse is a lot better than most directors’ best, but still, the fact remains. As with the previous western, there are several things which really grind my gears and where the film failed to maintain a connection to both my emotions and attention span.

First and most serious of these is the film’s chapter that rewinds from the cabin fewer atmospheres to a period that took place a few hours earlier, taking the plot into the recent past to explain the protagonists’ current predicament.

This big revelation reveals nothing of value and just sabotages the big finale that can only be expected from a neo-western where a bunch of killers ends up spending a night in isolated, blizzard-stricken house miles away from anywhere.

At this unnecessary rewind moment, the flaw of the film is exposed like poorly hidden acne under a white neon light – Hateful Eight uses the well-known fuel of the Tarantino thought processes, but this time, it burns weakly. While one of the many punches of the Inglorious Basterds was the moment when Aldo’s commandos kill Hitler, here, the only punch is the appearance of Channing Tatum’s character which is an undersell of an epic proportion.

The clickety-clack of the endless dialogue is here as well, but just like the many racial insults, it all falls flat and lifeless, at least when compared to the director’s previous films. Other issues are also present in the film's 150-minute runtime, including a few jokes which apparently somebody found hilarious, like the two pieces of wood, nailed to the door, but for me at least, the humor kept on eluding me.

Naturally, all of this is a disappointment coming from a man who expected greatness, but got only a fun and somewhat rambling thriller. The Hateful 8 experience is not particularly bad and the film keeps the viewer interested for 80% of its duration. The rewind segment is its weakest link; however, the rest is good, mainly thanks to the cast and the raw cinematography, to almost completely compensate this fact.

The Hateful 8 is like a film created by an exceedingly gifted ghost director (as in ghost writer) who got the task of making a movie just like Quentin Tarantino does. The result is fine, but I still expected someone to kill Hitler if you know what I mean. At the same time, others are making neo-westerns like the fantastic Bone Tomahawk, which makes The Hateful Eight look like a runner-up.

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comedy, Crime, drama, western,

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Film Review: Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Copyright: RLJ Entertainment

So far, Bone Tomahawk is one of the best films of 2015.

Films like it are only enforcing my strong belief that we’re living in the golden age of neo-western film. Furthermore, it seems that the standards set by films like The Salvation, The Retrieval, and the Das finstere Tal are constantly upgraded by other filmmakers who dare to push the genre into its next developmental chapter.

Here’s one way to describe it: Bone Tomahawk is a film that somehow managed to get connected with the spirit of Quentin Tarantino circa 1991 and offer him a chance to use a cast of choice to make a western horror dead-pan delivery dark comedy. The man that got the opportunity to channel this spirit is S. Craig Zahler, who made his debut with this film.

Before this, Zahler worked as both writer and cinematographer. But, in this film, his directorial results can only be described as flawless.

Using a simple story, set at the end of the 19th century, which follows a group of men going after a tribe of cannibalistic Native Americans with the purpose of retrieving a woman, the director made a killer film. There’s no better way to describe this movie than to call it sharp. All in the world Zahler made can cut right to the bone. This includes the bone tomahawks shaped from the jaws of horses that the cannibals use, but also the way characters perceive the world and their roles in it, and even goes all the way to the language they use. To say that the film is witty would be a gross simplification of the completely unburdened nature of the script.

Similar to other neo-western stories, it is liberated from the nonsense of contemporary films that might be called horrors. Here, the terror is fused with humor and the completely foreign way in which the people of that (relatively recent) time understood and approached their environment. At one moment, a member of the party, without any hesitation, kills two strangers who they notice in the dark approaching their campsite, even though they agreed to disarm themselves a moment before. His rationalization is simple: the two were robbers or a scouting party for other robbers.

No one else would approach a campsite without making their presence known and there is no room for special circumstances. While there is some protest, all appreciate his logic and just pack up and leave. In other words, the Wild West was as different to the modern mentality as much as the middle Ages were. This film doesn’t make a big deal out of it, just recognizes it as a stone cold fact.

The second thing that makes Bone Tomahawk into such a masterpiece is its humor and the way it bursts out of the characters, who all act brilliantly and I don’t want to commend anyone in particular (OK, maybe Richard Jenkins). In some ways, the humor is integral to the idea of violence and suffering – from the modern perspective, the things that the main characters do are irresponsible, cruel and wildly risky, but to them, they are just the way the world works. In the West, dying violently was kind of expected and you were expected to roll with the punches until you end up in a ditch surrounded by a beautiful sunset in the prairie.

The genius of S. Craig Zahler lies in the fact that he managed to present this type of grim and pointless historical idea in a wildly fun, funny and gory film.

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comedy, Horror, western,

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Film Review: The Dark Valley/ Das finstere Tal (2014)

Copyright: Films Distribution

I’m pretty certain that almost any Dark Valley review will conclude that Austria and neo-westerns actually go pretty well together, in spite of the fact that this combo at first sounds likes a beginning of a really bad joke that few people will even get. 

But, just like the militant outlook on life or we-took-some-gold-from-some-really-bad-people-and-still-don’t-want-to-give-it-back mindset that are still apparently lurking in the depths of the region’s nations collective unconscious (for me, the film seems like it is actually located more in Switzerland that Austria, which was anything by decentralized in that period), but are rarely (if ever) present in any open discourse, this film also deal with things that are apparent and those which are dark and hidden.

The Dark Valley (Das finstere Tal in original) opens by showing that it is really easy to live however you want if you’re in the 19th century and located in a remote, almost unknown valley in the Alps region. There, a village is run by the Brenner clan, a single family whose sons are the only ones who can carry firearms. One day, a mysterious stranger bearing a photographic camera arrives in the village with the purpose of making some photos. The Brenner brothers agree and gradually, winter sets in, meaning that no one can leave the village until spring.

Dark Valley begins in a strong manner, showing a world ruled by fear and much localized, but still very brutal tyranny. Here, director Andreas Prochaska makes most of the barren settings, both interior and exterior. There, in the snow-covered wilderness or inside of humble village homes, there is nowhere to hide and nowhere to run. No one will offer aid and there is nothing to grab onto once the monsters begin to converge on you. This claustrophobic and grim certainty is perfectly presented by Prochaska and is a fine springboard for Sam Riley who plays the mysterious stranger.

Unlike the villagers, he is not afraid. Instead, he is there with a clear purpose and this determination, often completely unspoken, shines like a torch in a blizzard. Riley, who is not even a native German speaker (the entire film is in German, spoken in a weird, presumably mountainous accent), pulls the role in a great style which he has not present since the movie Control. Once the narratives of the film begin to converge, so does a presence appears over the village, bringing retribution and resolution from below its dark winds.

Like The Salvation, another non-US neo-western, Dark Valley shows that there is a strong European drive in this unlikely genre, which is for me very exciting. I would not go so far in this Dark Valley review to state that there is some kind of a broader sociological exploration of a mountain-dwelling culture (hint – Switzerland of today), but still this film provides a lot of substance with its undoubtedly impressive visual presentation. This combination made it into a very good final product that is both a US culture export and local Austrian-Swiss-German work of art.

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western,

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Film Review: The Retrieval (2013)

Copyright: Variance Films

There is no doubt about it - this film presents a harrowing experience. It is set in a horrible time, when the American Civil war entered its last, but still very bloody phase. More importantly, it examines a horrible relationship of slave masters and their slave controlled by fear which wasn’t often presented in films.

Its story revolves around two slaves by the names of Will and Marcus, who are commanded by a slave bounty hunter Burrell to enter the area behind Union lines. There, their mission is to somehow lure an old runaway slave, and now a free man called Nate, back to the Confederate-held territory. There, Burrell simply plans to kill him.

This small drama was masterfully directed by Chris Eska using only talented actors, a great script, and the great outdoors. Eska superbly used the natural environment as the stage for this hard tale of the past, creating a road movie where the main engine of travel is the protagonist’s feet. Nate, Will and Marcus are a strange traveling band, and all three have completely different outlooks on life. Marcus is deceiving and treacherous, but fueled by the desire to keep him and Will alive. At first, Nate seems like his complete opposite, but in times of slavery and war, the film tells us, being pure and innocent was a lot harder than anyone could imagine.

Finally, Will is a young teenage, caught in the grips of a life where starvation, fear of death and random killings are just the way things are. His perspective, still somehow filled with hope and questions about the righteousness of this decision, is the focal point of the film. In his young, frightened and inquisitive mind, the true battle for the future of that land is being fought, and Eska definitely managed to transport these difficult ideas to a very clear work of art.

The Retrieval is undoubtedly full of great actors, but two names stand apart. First one is Bill Oberst Jr. who created the character of Burrell so effectively and free of any tropes that he is chilling to watch. Oberst body language, combined with a totally unreadable ideals or agenda, produced a brilliant ending to this fine film. In Burrell, the entire way of Confederate life is seen as a somber, cruel snapshot, just before it gets consumed by its own internal flame.

The other actor is Tishuan Scott, who played Nate. Scott offered an imposing, steadfast man, secure in his way while all other fall or stumble in the dark. But, as the story progresses, so does Nate gradually turn into a deep and flawed human being, which Scott successfully presented.

Watch the Retrieval and witness how it tells a sad and harsh tale about hope and freedom in a very unique and beautiful way.

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drama, History, western,

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