cacb3995's Movie Review of Western (2017)

Rating of
3.5/4

Western (2017)

Relocating the Frontier Mythos
cacb3995 - wrote on 07/10/18

Legendary film scholar and theorical father of the French New Wave young filmmakers André Bazin once described the western genre as the “american cinema par excellence”, and there is little room to deny that. The whole concept of a more simpler time, governed by a rule of law that still oscillated between wild nature and civilized society, the men who inhabited these spaces and how they related to one another, it was all captured since the beginning of american cinema. However, the genre has evolved in multiple forms, and many countries other than the United States have turned their attention to tales of the old west. Still, somehow those stories remained related to a more or lesser degree with the whole american mythology surrounding the western. And then we have last year’s “Western”: directed by german Valeska Grisebach, its set in 21st century Bulgaria and follows a group of german construction workers. But why would a film with such a premise have a title reminiscent of the legendary tales of gunslingers of old?

A group of german workers go to Bulgaria for a job of building a hydroelectric station, all with the intention of “making some money”. Yet, more than a few irregularities surrounding the deal take a toll on the construction process, and soon the workers find themselves with not much to do there besides drinking beer and advancing on the local women. The culture is really different to what they expected and the idiomatic barrier makes it hard for them to communicate. One of them, Meinhard (Meinhard Neumann), the most solitary of the lot, slowly starts getting closer to the local population and learning their customs. The others, however, don’t exactly see the situation as he does, and their old notions and prejudices quickly come into conflict with the new world in which they find themselves.

Full review at: https://breakingthefourthwallsite.wordpress.com/2018/07/10/western-relocating-the-frontier-mythos/

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