Warning: at times it is gruesome.
The story is set in the late 1800s, out in the fabled West, in a small settlement (ironically) called Bright Hope.
It's back in the days when if you get wounded in the leg, you might die of gangrene. And the sheriff-- Kurt Russell-- has a penchant for shooting suspicious folk in the leg.
But gangrene is the least of your worries if you live in Bright Hope. We learn what the real danger is from an erudite Native American the townsfolk call the Professor. Only he could deliver the bad news (if a white-man described what is to come, it would sound like xenophobic racist bullshit). The Professor explains that the two good people who have been abducted-- a helpful and pretty wife and the deputy to the sheriff-- have been taken by a tribe of indigenous cave-dwelling cannibalistic troglodytes.
He is not optimistic about the prospect of saving them.
The movie becomes comic for a bit, as a ragtag band of folks: one on crutches, one old, one something of a fop, and Kurt Russel-- the old sheriff with a few tricks up his sleeve-- make their way through the high plains to the troglodyte caves.
It's The Searchers meets The Descent.
There are some great lines and a wonderful campfire conversation about how hard it is to read a book in the bath (with a brilliant low-tech solution).
Then things get ugly.
This was a nice break from the gritty realism of The Wire and Better Call Saul and Bosch and even The Expanse (which is as realistic as you get for a sci-fi show, pretty much the opposite of Star Wars).
3 comments:
S. Craig Zahler, the writer director, is remarkably prolific. Here's the thing - it's all high quality. I've seen his other movies and just read A Congregation of Jackals. All great. He's as talented a writer as there is, Cormac level. Get some.
ok, i will. we really enjoyed this one.
Is bone used as a verb or an adjective?
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