The revenge-Western-drama
The Salvation is almost delightfully mean spirited towards its characters, but there's nothing cheeky about it. Its a Western in 2015 that doesn't feature a single twinge of irony, it doesn't seem to reference any other Westerns either, it doesn't comment on the genre its in, like the recently posted about Run All Night, its just about taking a classical genre, a familiar plot and resetting the pieces on the board and seeing how the game plays out this time.
Its better then Run All Night, although I don't think I could ever get tired of these sorts of meat-and-potato genre films, films that nail the shit out of the basics and add whatever artistic touches they can on the periphery. The modern Western lends itself to such flourishes, but its technical excellence is almost beside the point, so The Salvation has some great looking cinematography (oh the crags on Mikkelsen's face), a spare, an almost comically taciturn script, and a pleasing efficiency of going about its business. Its sincerity is charming, also its many shootings of people.
