I don't think I've seen a Guy Pierce movie yet that I haven't liked (I skipped the Time Machine to preserve the streak). Since seeing him for the first time in LA Confidential, I've been blown away by his intensity and ability to choose good movies to go into. In this way, he's very similar to Ed Norton. So I was pretty happy when his latest work landed in my mailbox on Friday. A surprise awaited me while the opening credits rolled - this movie was scripted by none other than Nick Cave, he of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame, a smart, darkly written indie band. Nick Cave also wrote the soundtrack, which was fantastic throughout. This is an australian western, set in the 1880's during the period of British occupation. The movie drops you half-way into a story, in the middle of a shootout. This will be the only shootout in the entire movie. While more death is to follow, its of the quick and brutal variety. The protagonist of the film (Pierce) is captured. Pierce is filthy throughout the entire movie - sunburnt, cut, dirty - just filthy. You also find out that he's not a nice guy - a killer who walked away from the depravity of his former life who once captured, is faced with a proposition - track down and kill his older brother, the most brutal of the bunch - or his younger brother will be hanged.
I hesitate to call this a western - the setting matches, but this isn't a story about the good guys going after the bad guys. Everyone's bad in this movie, its hard to even sympathize with Pierce's character, once given his history. The closest thing I could compare this movie to is Apocalypse Now, as the movie more than anything is an examination of humanity at its heart of darkness; how evil isn't a matter of good vs. bad, but of using wrong as a means for a right. The Outback is a perfect setting for this, where like the jungles of Vietnam, only the uncivil prosper. My only regret is that I missed this one in the theaters. Reviews
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