31/32
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a company of volunteers to patrol the uncharted western territories. Minervini had the set built in Montana and had the cast live there for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are those of the actors while they lived in the desert imagining themselves as soldiers in the Civil War. The Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers was sent to defend the mountainous territory. We are not told where it is, we are not even told the names of the soldiers. After the regular troops leave, they are under the command of a John Brown-style patriarch with a flowing beard, joined by his teenage sons. The troops are a mixed group, some are middle-aged, even old, most in their thirties. All lack military experience, they share knowledge and skills are passed down. We witness mobile sentries, shots fired at distant horsemen. A buffalo is shot and slaughtered. The desolate landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the falling snow and the lack of cold rations contribute to a growing sense of existential despair. A battle is taking place, we don’t see the enemy, we see the unit’s losses. War is hell, especially when you no longer know why you are there. A film in the style of Ken Loach, with no defined everyday dialogue and many ordinary people acting amateurishly like the soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around the campfire. Some of them overstay their welcome. But it is only a small distraction from this raw portrait of men at war. Screenplay and direction: Roberto Minervini, 8/10.
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