Mikes Film Talk

Slow West, released in 2015, is a whimsical but deadly western with a respectable body count by the final reel. It is written and directed by John Maclean. This is his first feature length film.

Slow West stars Michael Fassbender and Jodi Smit-McPhee and the film can be best described as a whimsical western. Slow West has been somewhat oddly listed as an action thriller and western on IMDb. This blackly comic romance story definitely does not fall into action thriller territory. It is over two hours long and an impressive amount of fatalities.

The Story

Smit-McPhee is Jay the 16 year-old son of Lady Cavendish. He follows the love of his young life from Scotland to America. Fassbender is Irishman Silas Selleck. He is a bounty hunter and brute. Silas shows up and helps Jay travel across the country, for a fee of $100. Young Cavendish is following the trail of Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius) and her father John. John is played by Rory McCann. McCann was Michael “Yarp” Armstrong in Hot Fuzz. He inadvertently killed Jay’s uncle back in Scotland.

There is a $2000 bounty on their heads; dead or alive. This is why Silas has hooked up with Jay. Silas is a bounty hunter and he plans to follow Cavendish to his lady love and collect the reward. Along the way, Jay sees a Native American village that is burnt to the ground, and a lot of death.

Whimsy

While Slow West can be best described as whimsy on horseback, this film is not at all an average “oater.” It is odd, quirky, insightful, tongue-in-cheek and, in places, laugh out loud funny. Maclean has given us a look, in some ways, at how the west really was. Most standard cowboy movies feature Californian accents, or Midwest, think John Wayne or Hank Fonda. Here, the director gives us an Irishman, a Scot, and an Englishman. Each one poses as a minister, and a moralizing thieving German. Also two would-be Swedish robbers and a group of what look to be inbred hillbillies. Said Hillbillies are a’la Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch railroad posse.

The oddest nationality to show up in the middle of the American West are a trio of Congolese singers. Each character appears to have issues with mobility. One is on an old-fashioned wheelchair. Another has a crutch and the last is seated on the ground. This surreal scene takes place in the middle of the prairie. The three men are singing as Silas and Jay ride past.

Cavendish stops to listen. “Did you like our music,” the man with the crutch asks. “Yes,” replies Jay. “It was a song of love,” replies crutch-man. “Aw, love is universal, like death,” says Jay before riding off. This odd little exchange (Which feels a little Terry Gilliam inspired.) also seems to foreshadow future events.

Wild West and Messages

There is quite a lot of that in this film. A bullet-hole in a suit, a playful poking in the chest with an index-finger gun barrel in a game…Speaking of games. There is a flashback to Scotland, Jay and Rose are playing a game called “A 1000 Ways to Die.”

“Pick yours,” calls Rose and Jay chooses “Bow and Arrow), another foreshadowing of a future events in the American West.

The film has all the trappings of the old west. It also features things that feel more like a satirical pastiche of the genre. The music that accompanies the film feels like something one would hear in a French film. Although, the style of the clothes looks almost “Sergio Leone” in origin. And all the handguns, with the exception of the Swedish woman’s derringer, are long barreled and huge.

These same “hand cannons” are also very, very loud when they go off. (A’la every spaghetti western ever made.

There are some “messages” in the film. The thieving German “author” that Cavendish meets, after running away from the “brute” asks Jay of his journey. The young man tells of the burnt Native American village and the German reacts eloquently:

“A race extinct, their culture banished, their places renamed. Only then will they be viewed with selective nostalgia. Mythologized and romanticized in the safe guise of art…and literature.”

– Werner (Andrew Robertt)

After this grand expression, the two men break bread. When Jays wakes in the morning his host has stolen everything and left. On the ground is an egg on a piece of paper. There is an arrow drawn on it and the word “West.”

Slow

The film is slow but musically so. It has a pace of a slow waltz and at no time is the tale boring. Eclectic and wandering the film includes a funny tale. It comes from the hillbilly bounty hunters,. It tells a tale of a hand written wanted poster and a dead bear.

This UK/New Zealand film looks brilliant and entertains almost effortlessly. There may be a big body count (17) but the violence is not overly gory. And in at least one instance, is very amusing. Newcomer Caren Pistorius is brilliant as the object of Jodi Smit-McPhee’s character’s affection.

Michael Fassbender looks like a young Burt Lancaster in this film, all square-jawed stubble. You keep expecting to hear Lancaster’s voice when the actor speaks. If ever there is a biopic on Lancaster, Fassbender should play the man.

The only complaint about the film concerns the accents or lack of them. Cavendish may well not sound overly Scottish. However, being of the “gentry” he would have been well educated. In which case elocution lessons would have been a matter of course. Fassbender only sounds Irish when he is drunk. In terms of reality, only the Swedish couple and the German have accents that “fit.”

This film is funny, tragic and odd. It is also fun. There are a number of things that are amusing, Rose’s inability to get the butter to set is one. The tiny square of wheat, or rye, outside the cabin during the climatic fight scene another.

*Side note* It would be interesting if Selleck’s name was chosen as a homage to Tom Selleck’s many western roles.

The Verdict

Fans of whimsical and clever films will enjoy and appreciate this splendid looking and entertaining movie. Digitally shot, Slow West looks spectacularly crisp and clear. This is a 5 out of 5 stars film for clever originality and a cracking musical score. The odd “buddy” film should not be missed.

The Trailer