I just saw this. It is very good. Masterful. All of the characters are extremely well written. The thing that strikes me most is the clichés it avoids. Check out the cast:
Christian Bale
Woody Harrelson
Casey Affleck
Sam Shepard
Willem Dafoe
Forest Whitaker
The atmosphere is thick. Acting is fantastic. Directing excellent. Editing superb.
The dissenting reviews online must have been waiting for the Hollywood movie. This, it ain’t.
Two thumbs up, White SIFL says check it out.
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Ten months later, I’ll resurrect this thread/post to nod in agreement.
I watched it last night and was mighty impressed. As White SIFL noted, the cast is impressive. I assume most of those big name players forwent(?) their usual salaries for this one. In other words, they were in it because they wanted to be; because (I assume) they thought it was worth doing in and of itself.
Atmosphere. Anybody who wants to see how it’s done should study this film. Thick, unrelenting, ‘rural Pennsylvania’ (with more than a few echoes of The Deerhunter).
A fine movie.
I would like to see it. I’ve see the budget listed at $22 million. So while it’s no summer blockbuster event movie, I don’t think was exactly a tiny indy, either. The cast is impressive for that budget, though (Bale’s not getting Batman money).
It’s on Netflix streaming.
resurrecting this thread because I just saw the film on Netflix and enjoyed it. It is very atmospheric and the acting is excellent.
However I struggled with the ending.
Clearly Russel Baze was supposed to be the (very tormented) good guy, and because of this, the sheriff somehow let him get off despite him executing DeGroat. But this doesn’t really sit well with me. I don’t have any problem with the killing of DeGroat, but Baze’s obsession with tracking down DeGroat (and not leaving this to the police) directly led to the death of his barkeep friend. If Baze had let the cops do their job, his friend would not have died.
So how are we still supposed to feel that Baze is a good guy and everything turned out OK?