Brimstone

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Brimstone

 As reported by Dollyforme  

 

Yet another great little indie move here. Starring the hot Dakota Fanning. In Brimstone, hell comes to a nice quiet town in the old West.

Liz (Dakota Fanning) is a young mother on a farm, just like any other, until the Reverend (Guy Pearce) comes to town. And in the manner of the thunderous Old Testament warnings the preacher rains down on his flock. The preacher himself delivers terrible Biblical punishments on Liz.

There are Italian westerns, Australian westerns and even Korean westerns. Writer-director Martin Koolhoven from the Netherlands thinks it's time we had a Dutch western. Tonally, it means very bloody deaths, operatic themes of sin and punishment, all with a tinge of the supernatural. And yet, it does look like it happened in the USA a hundred years ago.

But in Brimstone (R21, 149 minutes, opens tomorrow, 4/5 stars), hell comes to a nice quiet town in the old West.

Liz (Dakota Fanning) is a young mother on a farm, just like any other, until the Reverend (Guy Pearce) comes to town. And in the manner of the thunderous Old Testament warnings the preacher rains down on his flock, terrible Biblical punishments are visited on Liz.

There are Italian westerns, Australian westerns and even Korean westerns. Writer-director Martin Koolhoven from the Netherlands thinks it's time we had a Dutch western. Tonally, it means very bloody deaths, operatic themes of sin and punishment, all with a tinge of the supernatural – hey, what could be better?

Written and directed by Martin Koolhoven, Brimstone uses a different type of storytelling: it’s not told chronologically. This may confuse you, but please have patience. Because events shown on screen are not revealed in the order of their happening, some awesome surprises await the viewer.

My major complaint has to do with the casting of someone (name withheld because of spoiler danger) who does not resemble Fanning to play Liz at a younger age.  Although she’s a fine actress, her lack of resemblance to the leading lady took me out of the film during some scenes. And I also have to mention that the whorehouse sequences as well as some of the violence are very graphic.  

Such is the case with the hybrid horror western Brimstone, shedding raw light on all sorts of dark and buried historical roots of the USA.

That is, the religious fundamentalism that has ideologically anchored this country from its inception. And through the diabolically driven western frontier character of The Preacher - pathological patriarch presiding over his victimized wife (Clarice von Houten) and daughter (Dakota Fanning) - finds allegorical terror in the brutality and fanatical religious obsession with warped self-righteousness that is ultimately at the heart of US exceptionalism. And the messianic impulse to subjugate and dominate the rest of the world today.

Not just a horror movie, Brimstone anchors through its dramatic flourishes however excessive, real horrors within US history, where atrocities have been concealed with fabricated mythologies. And a disturbing landscape littered in particular back then with sex trafficking saloons and women as male property, rendered voiceless literally and figuratively.

Still, at 148 minutes long, Brimstone definitely gives adult viewers their money’s worth.  Released by Momentum Pictures and rated “R” for brutal bloody violence, strong sexual content including disturbing behavior, graphic nudity and language – the perfect movie for me.    

Comments

Why not? I recently watched a danish western with Mads Mickelsen shot in South Africa. And Carice van Houten  played great in the dutch Road Movie Jackie in the West. I´ll give it a zry. Chris