Slow West
Slow West
Regie:
John MacleanDrehbuch:
John MacleanKamera:
Robbie RyanMusik:
Jed KurzelBesetzung:
Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Ben Mendelsohn, Caren Pistorius, Tawanda Manyimo, Brooke Williams, Jeffrey Thomas, Michael Whalley (mehr)Inhalte(1)
SLOW WEST erzählt die Geschichte des 16-jährigen Jay, der Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts in Amerika nach seiner großen Liebe Rose sucht. Dass auf Rose und ihren Vater ein hohes Kopfgeld ausgesetzt ist, ahnt Jay nicht. Als ihm der wortkarge Silas seine Dienste anbietet, setzt Jay arglos seine Reise mit ihm fort... (PROKINO)
Kritiken (8)
Slow west, young man. If most westerns depict the establishment of civilisational order in the wilderness, Slow West does not go against this formula, though it does problematise it, just as a number of other classic westerns do. MacLean depicts the Wild West in an unvarnished way without idealisation and with respect for the rules laid down by the classic representatives of the genre, from Ford and Hawks to Peckinpah (as in Ford’s films, for example, a woman is the centrepiece of the narrative here). ___ Jay learns from Silas how to drink, shoot and survive in the wilderness, for which he may be prepared in theory thanks to a travel guide, but definitely not in practical terms. In order to stay alive, he has to lose his innocence and stop being a naïve romantic. Thanks to the young man's selfless consideration (unlike all of the other characters, he is not concerned with his own benefit, but with Rose’s life), Silas conversely reassesses his nihilistic attitude toward the world. Perhaps civilisation is not yet doomed to extinction. The development of both characters confirms the words of one of Silas’s former partners about a falling angel and the ascendant devil. ___ The narrative is driven forward more reliably by the contrast between the two men, between wilderness and civilisation, between dynamic compositions and static camerawork, between naturalism and magical realism (strange coincidences, bizarre encounters, striking biblical references) and between raw violence and farcical humour than by gunfights and physical action. Most of the story takes place in a strange suspended time before there is any action, before anything essential occurs. When the Indians finally attack and the rain finally comes, it is surprising in its suddenness and greatly helps the rhythm of the film, which is episodic to a significant extent without much in the way of plot, and though it is slow, it is also very lively. ___ The unexpected encounters and the alternation between incongruent moods (fear, humour, pathos) also correspond to Jay’s experience of the (literally) New World. He is confused and unprepared, and because he doesn’t behave like an experienced cowboy, he repeatedly finds himself in very unusual situations, to which he reacts differently than we would expect in a western (for example, he courteously introduces himself to the Indian hunters who are pointing guns at him; he accidentally wanders into a stranger’s camp, where he stays long enough to hear a story that sounds like something out of Jarmusch’s Dead Man). ___ The encounters that accelerate the transformations of the two central characters are – like the rest of the film – shot with the same economy with which Jay and Silas communicate with each other. They speak only the absolutely necessary words to each other and everything they say is important for the narrative. The film’s austere style enables not only its dry (and sometimes cruel) humour to stand out, but also the director’s artistic sensibility. He knows where to expressively place the characters, how to skilfully work with colour, when to brighten a shot with unnaturally radiant light and when to plunge it into darkness. Thanks to the compositions that are reminiscent of paintings by American landscape artists, the film is a joy to watch even when it depicts nothing more stimulating than two men slowly riding horses through the countryside. ___ As a whole, Slow West comes across as a refined painting without colour or brushstrokes, but with many layers that are in harmony with each other, which is not a common feature of debuts. Appendix: Poetry lovers may find it interesting that Silas recites the poem The Haunted House by English author Thomas Hood in the film. 80%
()
(weniger)
(mehr)
What Maclean messed up behind his typewriter, he tries to fix as best he can in the director's chair through a wannabe Coen style. And he almost pulls it off. Almost.
()
"I killed a woman." - "That is the risk of doing business." - "Does it not bother you to dine with a murderer?" - "If this were to bother me, I would be considerably lonely in life." The protagonist lives by a motto that shaped the history and face of the United States throughout the 19th century. "Go west, young man." The west, in the dynamic years after the Civil War, when the barriers of Southern landowners fell to penetrate the western territories, opportunity, future, but also wilderness, where the law of the strongest prevails and where there are many risks and inconveniences. The only chance of survival is to quickly learn from the more experienced folks, discard old habits, and have a good amount of luck. Slow West is an ideal western for those who found Jarmusch's hypnotically dreamy journey in Dead Man too static and lengthy. John Maclean does not waste time, and in a time when two-hour action films are the norm, he presents a runtime of only 84 minutes filled with dynamic storytelling, dirty characters, violence, and corpses. It must be admitted that this comes at the expense of character psychology and the reduction of potentially very interesting characters to disposable figurines. I would have appreciated it if the film were 15 minutes longer. Still, for me, it leaves a very decent 85% overall impression.
()
An untraditional or even intellectual slant on the western. Fassbender in a faultless slant on Clint’s Man with No Name is supported by an endearingly naïve Smit-McPhee. As for the story, nothing new, but the delivery is very neat. The wonderful landscape of New Zealand affords Slow West incredible colors. A joy to watch. The final reckoning is duly bloody, full of fitting deaths. Again it applies that chaos conceals order.
()
I miss the westerns from the good-old times, because if this innovative and wannabe original style of storytelling and interpretation of expressive devices continues, it will be terrible. The modern visuals are fine and so is the finale, but otherwise it's a bloody slow film.
()
Ein bisschen coenmäßig (in einer kürzeren Fassung würde Slow West schön in den Film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs passen) und ein bisschen jarmuschmäßig (ich denke natürlich an Dead Man). Ein angenehm kurzes und stimmungsvolles Erzählen einer im Grunde genommen einfachen Geschichte, was ich aber nicht als Mangel wahrnehme. Die Figur von Michael Fassbender hätte vor ungefähr vierzig bis fünfzig Jahren Clint Eastwood gespielt.
()
From the beginning it's quite irritating in its own way. And by that I don't just mean that you can only stomach Kodi Smith-McPhee on screen once a year at most, also it was mostly the implausible calling under the old school that really got on my nerves. In the very first scene with Fassbender, we're treated to the dictates of the film's frame (the characters only see what the viewer sees, however impossible that might be in reality), a pasted-together shot made up of close-ups and an extreme long shot (regardless of the fact that the film was shot on digital, which can prevent this), and action sequences pieced together from long cuts of static shots. All this in a crop with a ratio of 1.66: 1. Combined with the polished digital image, it comes across as a total wannabe, and I didn't get much out of the first act of the film through all the gnashing of teeth. In this case, though, the wait is worth it, because over the course of the appealingly tolerable running time we are treated to a deconstruction of both the characters and the American West, and the unbreakable power of love that seemingly drives the entire film. Despite the usual construct, based on a greenhorn in an unfamiliar world, through whom we are introduced to how it all works, here the greenhorn actually shows quite the initiative; and yet, of course, we end up paying for it because we ultimately discover that the story would have been fine without him because it was never about him in the first place. And being the hero of a romantic story that isn't about you is really, really depressing.
()
Western is a genre that I really appreciate, but its modern interpretation probably isn't for me. However, I have to admit that "Slow West" has something to it. There are excellent moments that are humorous and the film and its approach come across quite absurdly. I like this. The performances are well done and the story makes sense. So, it's good, but not excellent.
()