Its 1870 and 16 year old Jay Cavendish travels from a
privileged life in Scotland to America in search of the love of his life. Rose
Ross and her father had to leave their croft in Scotland following an
altercation with 16 year olds father, Lord Cavendish, John Ross knocks the man
to the floor where he bangs his head on a rock and bleeds out. Completely
unprepared for the journey across the prairie its not long before the naive
young boy needs rescuing. Knowing more than he lets on Silas Selleck offers,
for a price, to assist Jay in his search for Ross and her father. But Silas and
Jay are not the only ones looking for the father and daughter. A ruthless gang of bounty hunters led by
Payne are also on their trail.
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| The naive Jay Cavendish. |
This exceptional debut feature film has been directed and
written by John Maclean who some may remember from his involvement with the
Scottish band The Beta Band and a
couple of short films he made with Michael Fassbender who also stars in this movie
as the cheroot chewing Silas Selleck a man of mixed emotions. Kodi Smit-McPhee,
a budding young actor who can be seen in various films that have included the
Hammer remake Let Me In (2010) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), plays Jay Cavendish. We also
get another wonderful lesson in ‘menacing’ by the brilliant Ben Mendelsohn as Payne.
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| Silas Selleck, a man who knows more than he admits. |
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| The menacing Payne. |
Starkly beautiful, Slow West (2015) is a brutal film
that involves a misdirected love affair that unfortunately leads many to their deaths.
To John Maclean’s great credit this promising young filmmaker gives us a movie
that percolates realism displaying what the people and the landscape would have
been like in 1870’s Colorado. In my opinion it’s a film that demonstrates
humanities greed where people are sacrificed, one way or another for personnel
gain – some things don’t change. Certainly a western with a difference,
unglamorous maybe, but one not to be missed.
