The Salvation.

Now here’s a mouth-watering proposition: a Danish western directed and co-written by Kristian Levring, who was the fourth signatory of the Dogma95 movement, made by the Danish film company Zentropa Entertainments which was started by director Lars von Trier and producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen and which was responsible for over 70 feature films including The Hunt (2013) A Royal Affair (2013) In A Better Word (2010) Donkeys (2010) and most of Lars von Triers output. It gets even more lip smacking when you read the cast list.

 

The Husband Jon (Mads Mikkelson)

Out of the wreckage of the Danish defeat in the war of 1864 Jon (Mads Mikkelson) and his brother Peter (Mikael Persbrandt) crossed the Atlantic to forge a new future for themselves. For seven years they struggled to get a foothold in an unfamiliar land, seven years in which Jon longed for his wife Marie and their son. Seven years is a long time for any family to be apart. The year is 1871 and the country is America. 

Brother Peter (Mikael Persbrant)

The movie starts with Jon and Peter meeting the train carrying Marie and his ten-year-old son.  Peter stays in town while Jon and his family board a stagecoach that will take them to their new home on the outskirts of Black Creek. It’s when two recently released criminals board the coach that a nightmare begins that can only end in violence and death.   

Notorious Gang Leader Henry De La Rue (Jeffery Dean Morgan) 

Black Creek is run by Mayor Keane (Jonathan Pryce) who is in cahoots with an ex Injun fighter and notorious gang leader Henry De La Rue (a menacing Jeffery Dean Morgan) to buy up all the land surrounding the town. Also involved in these underhand goings on are the ineffective town Sheriff (played by Scottish actor Douglas Henshall recently seen in series one of Outlander) and De La Rue’s sister in law Madeline who was rescued from the Injuns minus her tongue (a totally delicious and smouldering Eva Green who is absolutely brilliant despite not having a line of dialogue to say)

 

Sister in Law Madeline (Eva Green)

Beautifully shot in South Africa by Jens Schlosser, this is homage to the classic western style made famous by Sergio Leone cross-fertilised with Fred Zinnermann’s High Noon (1952). A feature film so obviously made and acted with such great enthusiasm that’s its familiar format can be forgiven. Its traditionally authentic feel will keep you gripped, a Scandinavian movie experience not to be missed.

Texas Killing Fields.

What are the Texas Killing Fields? According to the trailer for the film since 1971 over 60 young women have disappeared, believed to have been murdered, and disposed of in an area bordering the Calder Oil Field, a 25-acre piece of land situated not far from the southern end of Texas City and a mile from Interstate 45, a stretch of road allegedly known as the highway of hell due to the high rate of traffic accidents. When you look up this area on the Internet you find that approximately 30 bodies have been discovered in the fields, mainly consisting of young girls between the ages of 10-25 many have similar physical features including similar hairstyles. Also the majority of the bodies were found next to water, leading to speculations that that a serial killer had been at work! Incidentally very few of the murder cases have been solved.

 

The Fields hide many secrets.

Directed by Michael Mann’s daughter Ami Canaan Mann with a screenplay by Federal Agent Donald Ferrarone, Texas Killing Fields (2013) is loosely based on the real events but focusing mainly on the two real life Detectives involved in the case Brian Goetschus and Mike Land, called Brian Heigh (Jeffery Dean Morgan) and Mike Soulder (Sam Worthington) in the adaptation. Worthington has been quoted as saying that this movie was made to raise awareness about the crimes and maybe bring fresh evidence to light. Unfortunately the movie has reawakened bad memories and mixed emotions for the families of the victims.

 

Just some of the victims. 

To be honest and despite being shot in Louisiana and having a very good cast, which as well as Dean Morgan and Worthington we have Jessica Chastain playing the hard bitten Detective Pam Stall, 14 year old Chloe Grace Moretz playing the ‘nearly’ victim Anne Sliger and our very own Stephen Graham playing a low life character called Rhino, the film is a little disappointing and certainly not as good as the not dissimilar The Frozen Ground (2013) or Memories of Murder (2003). It has a rather muddled narrative and the lack of any real tension or suspense does nothing to help its case. Other than Anne no other character deserves our empathy, in fact the movie is full of awful nasty people who according to this portrait frequent the lower echelons of American society and the police force. Sorry but two hours of your viewing pleasure would be better directed elsewhere!