Good movie, not great - but definitely worth checking out. It wasn't what I expected, which was a balls to the walls visceral western. While it is indeed violent and uncompromising, overall the film is rather subtle on every surface. Everything builds up, layers upon layers. Perhaps that's best displayed by the music, which starts rather atmospheric before expanding into this foreboding doom.
To me the film examined clashes in family and "civilization." After a vicious town murder that leaves a wife and unborn child dead, the local "sheriff" (played by the always awesome Ray Winstone) seeks to find the guilty party - a murderous group of brothers. After finding two members, he gives the second oldest member a proposition: if he finds and kills his older brother he'll be pardoned of his crime, if not his younger brother will die at the gallows. From here things really set off. Like many westerns there's a good deal of moral ambiguity to be found here, but there are clear lines between those who are "bad" and those who are "ugly"...so to speak.
What is man if he acts like an ape? - K-OSWinstone's character Captain Stanley is caught in the middle of this struggle, and is charged with correcting it. He has been sent to Australia to "civilize" a certain town and protect it from the ingenious blackies that roam the deserts. Yet how can one civilize a group of people if you aren't civil yourself? Stanley's methods are savage at times, and he attempts to hide this from his ugly, high born British wife. Perhaps the harshness of his surroundings force Stanley to forfeit morality, perhaps he never was civilized to begin with - either way he doesn't want his wife exposed to these bleak circumstances.
For a western there's not a lot of action to be found here. Yet each action scene is rather visceral, culminating in the intense (albeit abrupt) ending.
I thought the film was pretty well written. The dialogue never drowns you in preachy overtones, and is instead rather subtle. My only complaint about it would be the pacing, which seemed rather uneven; the movie really drags at times, and feels longer than the 106 minute run time. Outside of that my only other complaint would have to do with some rather strange editing that seemed to jump back and forth a bit too fast. But overall it's pretty good. It's better than Unforgiven
I give this 8.0 panangas out of 10.1 panangas
