47/40

In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a company of volunteers to patrol the uncharted West. Minervini built this set in Montana, then let the cast live there for two months. The conversations and thoughts expressed are those that the actors had while imagining themselves as Civil War soldiers living in the wilderness. We’re not told where, nor do we learn the soldiers’ names. Once the regulars set out, they find themselves under the command of a John Brown-style patriarch, who is joined by his teenage sons. The troops are a mixed bunch, some middle-aged, some even old, many in their thirties. Not all have military experience, they share knowledge and transfer skills. We see potshots of mobile sentries, remote runners. A buffalo is shot and killed, the bleak landscape, the mountains, the mountain pastures, the drifting snow, the cold rations running low all add up to a sense of existential despair. A battle ensues, we don’t see the enemy, we see the injuries of the unit. War is hell, especially when you don’t know why you’re there anymore. The day-to-day set is like a Ken Loach-style film with no dialogue and a lot of ordinary people acting, like amateurs like soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around campfires. Some of them are more than they deserve. But that’s a minor distraction from this raw portrayal of people at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.

michael 2025