Review by C.J. Bunce
As Western movies go, the best have the simplest stories. Look at Stagecoach or Angel and the Badman, and even High Noon. You don’t need a cast of hundreds. Two movies that are the best of the genre are from this century, and it’s no accident they came from the mind of one visionary director. When we reviewed the independent film Tornado, it was clear it had the hallmarks of something great. Everything about it screamed authentic Western. With a similar simple story, equally good cinematography, and the perfect understated musical score, Slow West is actually writer-director John Maclean’s first Western, from 2015. Like Tornado, it’s one of the finest Westerns of this century, and it’s now streaming on multiple streaming services.
A young Scottish man named Jay Cavendish, played by the always compelling Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, X-Men: Apocalypse), is deeply in love with a woman in his town named Rose, played by Caren Pistorius (Mortal Engines, Legend of the Seeker). Their relationship is playful. He’s serious about her. Her view of him is less certain. But this is an era where marrying someone from across the street was quite common. When Jay’s uncle is killed by Rose’s father in an argument, Rose and her father escape to America. We catch up with Jay at the opening of the film after he’s begun his slow, lonely trek westward across America with an over-loaded horse. Thin, gangly, and unprepared for his voyage, Jay’s journey seems destined to fail.
Enter Silas Selleck, played by Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men: Days of Future Past), a bounty hunter who happens upon fish-out-of-water Jay and agrees to take him cross country to try to find Rose and her father–for a price. Along the journey Silas begins to understand Jay’s commitment. The pair meet duplicitous sorts, get caught in a robbery, and split up and come back together again. When they encounter a $2,000 wanted poster and bounty for Rose and her dad, their time to find Rose grows short. When Silas’s old partner in crime catches up with the duo, the story comes to a head. That’s Payne, played by Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Captain Marvel). Rose and her father are nearby, being helped by a Native American called Kotori, played by Kalani Queypo (The New World, Royal Tenenbaums).
The finale explodes with pristine staging and choreography. Rose proves to be more than Jay led us to believe–a survivor. A badass? And Silas goes out of his way for Jay. He truly seems to believe in Jay’s mission and will give everything to help him.
The Scottish flashback scenes were filmed in Scotland, with New Zealand doubling as mid-19th century America. The location accounts for New Zealand actors filling out the supporting cast, including Pistorius and Madeleine Sami (Deadloch) in a brief appearance. Cinematographer Robbie Ryan would reunite with composer Jed Kurzel in Tornad0. The pair of films would make a great double feature.
At least a half dozen scenes in this film include elements you’ve never seen before. An old man tells an unusual story around a campfire that is both clever and tragic (and funny). Humor is otherwise not a common component of the story, although the movie has its tension breakers. Like Jay and Silas drying their clothes after being awakened by a storm by holding a taut rope between their horses as a clothesline. Few archetypes can be found here. Most of the players are bad guys and the good guys are stuck with often unfortunate choices.
In the same league as True Grit (both versions), Unforgiven, and the remakes of 3:10 to Yuma and The Magnificent Seven, I’m just going to say it: Slow West is actually better. It’s riveting, it’s more believable. The emotional scenes, the drama, will grab you in the gut. It’s not a big, fun shoot ’em up like Silverado or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, although it has its confrontations exactly where they belong. But it can hold its own in the genre just the same. The closest you’ll find to the gravitas this century is the superhero film that’s actually a Western–Logan–and the anthology Western The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which tackles the same types of American immigrant struggles as they travel the long, hard ride West. Slow West leaves the over-stuffed, impossible plots of No Country for Old Men and Gangs of New York in its wake.
It has all the gripping elements of your favorite Louis L’Amour novel. Did anyone accuse his novels of being revisionist Westerns? Like L’Amour’s stories, history doesn’t always have happy endings. Jay’s journey has parallels to Christopher McCandless’s real-life journey in Into the Wild. Some great Westerns are also romances and this is another. The romance here is an unlikely one, one you can’t help compare with Smit-McPhee’s other strange romance, Let Me In.
As with Tornado, the story and experience will stay with you long after the curtain draws closed. Don’t miss one of this century’s best Westerns. Slow West is now streaming on Pluto, Tubi, Google TV Freeplay, and Roku.
