SLOW WEST is a 2015 film starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn, written and directed by first-timer John MacLean. The film follows the bare bones Western; a boy is on a journey west to find his love, accompanied by Silas, his mysterious "chaperone".
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It's hard to believe - amidst the summer blockbuster season comes a small and lovingly crafted film set within one of the most depreciated genres of cinema.
Slow West is just as the title suggests, it burns slowly and unapologetically so, taking its time to grasp onto its narrative just as the lead attempts to grasp onto his bounty-ridden love. However, when it does grasp, it goes with flying colours, delivering visceral and oddly surreal action sequences that clash playfully with the clean and heavily saturated landscapes and cinematography.
The cast populating those sequences are all commendable in their efforts, McPhee as the feeble but strong willed Jay, Fassbender as the jaded crook with a heart of gold Silas and Mendelsohn as the fur-coat wearing and sinister villain Payne. Fassbender especially steals the show, his character presented perfectly, chuckling on a cigar even in the most dire of consequences. Deferring to the lead's love interest, Caren Pistorius deserves an honourable mention as she dominates the screen during the film's finale, with her character left in a state that can only be described as bitter-sweet.
Written and directed by aforementioned first-feature-length-timer John MacLean, it is certainly an impressive first effort. While it may be the definition of a simplistic story, never has it been taught so well and with such straight forward focus when it gets going. The film may suffer for some due to its meandering closer to the beginning, indulged in its own pretty visuals and minimalist style, this becomes a non-issue after the first plot-related bomb shell drops - leaving you wondering what made you feel even slightly bored in the first place.
It brings the unquestionable moral that was the Wild West: brutal and often prone to life or death scenarios as everyone scrapes by, the scraping by being the bounties that are picked up by wanderers, each poster proclaiming "Wanted dead or alive", which is adequately put as "Wanted dead or dead". Dialogue between characters is often underplayed, the faces and the guns with those faces do the talking. The bonding process between Jay and Silas is a key example of this, the first moment in which they reluctantly work together leads to the deaths of multiple people, actions speaking louder than words. The last shots of the film hammer this home with each of the body count tallied up in a remorseless fashion, showing the count close and in grisly detail. While this may seem ham-fisted upon reading, it feels natural as you absorb what the film has to offer and succeeds in its job of making you think of the consequences of the actions made throughout.
The score by Jed Kurzel is a minimal aspect of this film, and to that it works to it's advantage, accentuating the slow build-up and outburst that takes place with plucky strings and violins soaked with dread respectively, taking an ambient back-seat instead of it being used entirely to demonstrate action - proving the age-old sign of intelligence as when to know when not to utilise the score in addition of when to utilise it.
Cinematography as aforementioned demands to be discussed, as done by Robbie Ryan. This film is beyond gorgeous, the colours pop perfectly within the daytime scenes and evoke the quality of an old, classic Western, the cinematography alone makes this film worth a view and also shows a tip of the hat to all of the older influences that this film has.
Overall, Slow West is a wonder for fans of the genre and is also accessible to those who generally lack interest in Westerns, but if that is the case, it may not win you over, but it will certainly make your appreciation for films such as this deeper. It's only once in a while that you see a film like Slow West pop up without taking any of the well-deserved spotlight - and that's a damn shame.
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