The Danish director, Kristian Lovring, states that The Salvation is an homage to American
westerns and represents his wish to emulate his idols in film: “John Ford, Sergio Leone, Akira
Kurosawa…to be allowed to make a film in the genre where they excelled has been
like a hallucinatory dream.”) It’s
clearly a western, which starts out with an excruciating scene of senseless
violence, and ends up with violence perhaps justified. The Danish ex-soldier Jon (Mikkelsen)
has been in the US for seven years, making a place for his wife and son to join
him. He meets them at the train,
and there is unspeakable joy in reuniting. Unfortunately, they board a carriage for their home, and are
confronted with two unsavory characters, one of which—Paul—behaves boorishly
and seems to have no sense at all.
He drinks liberally from a jug and begins to harass the family, and ends
up dumping Jon off on the side of the road when he protests. But Jon is smart, and uses his head to
track Paul down and find his wife and child. He is successful, and takes out his vengeance on Paul for
what he has done.
Unbeknownst
to Jon, perhaps—not clear—this invokes the wrath of Delarue (Morgan), Paul’s brother,
who is even more unsavory. Not
only is he offended by someone daring to ignore his authority, but he is going
to exact payment from the townspeople for his personal loss.
Although the townspeople are
aware of the brutality of Delarue and his gang, they seem to be helpless. They’re being extorted for “protection”
(a la the mafia), yet they stand by inert. One even betrays Jon, presumably in the absurd hope that
that will satisfy Delarue. Will
the hero they’ve been waiting for, ever arrive?
Mikkelsen
is made for this role—the patient, long-suffering good guy with the woeful
eyes. Although Morgan’s roles in
film and television have usually been “good guys”, he is a repulsive character
here, which shows his acting range.
Like most westerns, good and bad are drawn very clearly in The Salvation, with no gray
In-between. The only ambiguous
character is the wife of the slain Paul (Michael-Raymond James), Madeleine, who
was left mute years before by marauding Indians. She has scars on her face, a mysterious tattoo, and eyes
that, even though they speak to us, we cannot decipher. By the end, however, she reveals her
real self.
This
picture is from Denmark, and as such, gives us a glimpse of how people in other
countries
regard our westerns. That their fascination with them is so
enduring, is a bit of a puzzle for me.
The director, Kristian Levring, says he asked himself why he wanted to
return to a genre that is past its prime.
It had something to do with his love of westerns as a child, as well as
emulating his heroes Finally, he
sees America’s western experience as similar to that of many Europeans’; that
is, of people who venture far from their homes to join the birth of a new
nation.
An American western coming from Denmark.
Grade: B By
Donna R. Copeland
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