By wrapping the audience in a stunning journey of hope, love, and innocence against a backdrop of melancholy and violence, John Maclean creates moments of dream-like wonder and nightmare-like fear as young Jay’s vulnerabilities are laid bare. Slow West is available to rent, buy and stream.
More than any other genre, the Western has long been synonymous with the road trip, the wide-open landscapes, and the untamed frontier of early North America, providing a canvas for stories of the nomadic, lonesome traveller and their quest for peace, revenge, or love. While the road trip movie would continue to adapt and change over time, especially during the 1970s and 1990s, classic Western imagery has remained a core part of nearly every road trip movie, and it’s the classic road trip that sits at the heart of John Maclean’s inspired and beautiful western, Slow West (2015).
Sometimes, the journeys we take in life are born from innocence, naivety and love, and our young hearts guide us with little understanding of the dangers ahead. The year is 1870, and Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a vulnerable Scottish teenager in a foreign land, his horse struggling under the weight of his suitcases while his hands nervously hold onto the reins as he passes through the deep and dangerous forests of Colorado. But what has brought Jay to this unforgiving yet hauntingly beautiful frontier? The answer lies with Jay’s sweetheart, Rose (Caren Pistorius), who fled Scotland with her dad (Rory McCann) following a tragic incident. That incident involved Jay, but he won’t let that force them apart, and he plans to reunite with his first love no matter the cost.
It’s not long before the wide-eyed Jay finds his life threatened and saved by the mysterious Silas (Michael Fassbender), who quickly takes Jay under his rugged and torn wing. But is Silas all he appears to be at first? Unlike many Western road movies, Slow West defies its title with a brisk pace and poetic, lyrical air. Maclean focuses his lens on the diverse immigrant communities and individuals who, like Jay, believed that the American frontier would offer hope and freedom but, in reality, found desperation and violence.
By wrapping the audience in a stunning journey of hope, love, and innocence against a backdrop of melancholy and violence, Maclean creates moments of dream-like wonder and nightmare-like fear as Jay’s vulnerabilities are laid bare. Jay’s mission is fatally flawed from the outset by the rose-tinted dreams he holds onto, something Silas understands and uses to further his own hidden agenda. Here, the outstanding performances of Smitt-McPhee and Fassbender stand centre stage in a movie that packs an emotional punch as Jay’s foolhardy journey, built on teenage love, slowly crumbles in a world of cruelty, violence, and survival at any cost.
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