In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the US Army sent a volunteer detachment to patrol the unexplored western territories. Minervini built the sets in Montana and then allowed the actors to live there for two months. Dialogues and expressed thoughts are those that the actors came up with, living in the wilderness, imagining themselves as soldiers of the Civil War. Cursed: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer detachment of Union soldiers was sent to defend the mountainous territory. They didn’t tell us where he was, they didn’t even tell us the names of the soldiers. After the departure of the regular troops, they were led by a patriarch with a lush beard, similar to John Brown, whose teenage sons also enlisted in the army. The soldiers are a mixed composition, some of them middle-aged, some even elderly, most of them in their thirties. All of them have no military experience, knowledge is passed on, and skills are inherited. We see how the mobile temporaries open fire on the horsemen at a greater distance. The buffalo was shot and killed. The dreary landscape, hills, mountain meadows, snowstorms, lack of food — all this heightens the feeling of existential despair. The battle is going on, we don’t see the enemy, we see the victims of a single person. War is a thing, especially when you don’t know why you are there. A film in the style of Ken Loach, without everyday dialogues and with a lot of ordinary people playing amateur soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions at the campfire. Some of them are too long. But this is only a minor distraction from the harsh image of people at war. Screenwriter and director: Roberto Minervini, 8/10.
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