30/27
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 the set in Montana, after which the actors let them live there for two months. The dialogue and ideas presented are those the actors came up with in Living in the Wilderness, imagining themselves as Civil War soldiers. The Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to defend a mountain range; we are not told where it is, we do not even get the names of the soldiers. The regulars are on the move, led by a John Brown-like patriarch with a shaggy beard, and his teenage son has also enlisted. The crowd is mixed, some middle-aged, some old, most in their thirties. All lacking military experience, they share their knowledge and skills are transferred. We see guards moving, distant horsemen. Buffaloes being slaughtered and butchered, the dark landscape, hills, mountain meadows, drifting snow, cold rations running out add to the existential despair that is building. The battle is taking place, we don’t see the enemy, we see the unit’s losses. War is hell, especially when you don’t know why you’re there anymore. It’s really a Ken Loach film, with no everyday dialogue and lots of ordinary people playing, amateurs and soldiers alike. This improvisation gives rise to philosophical, religious and political discussions around campfires. Some of them are welcome. But they are only a minor distraction from this brutal depiction of men at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.