The Salvation
In 1870s America, a peaceful American settler kills his family's murderer which unleashes the fury of a notorious gang leader. His cowardly fellow townspeople then betray him, forcing him to hunt down the outlaws alone.
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- Cast:
- Mads Mikkelsen , Eva Green , Jeffrey Dean Morgan , Éric Cantona , Mikael Persbrandt , Douglas Henshall , Michael Raymond-James
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Reviews
To me, this movie is perfection.
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
The best first thing you can say about this flick is that it's good old, down-home, operatic storytelling and character development.After that, it's icing on the cake. The production values are fantastic, and the direction and acting is spot-on.If you find western revenge dramas to be your thing, definitely check this one out.
The genre of the western has been slowly dying over the years but I had some interest in seeing the salvation and this film is just pretty forgettable which is a shame. The premise of this film is after a man has his family taken away from him he goes on the hunt for those responsible. Mads mikkelsson is the lead in this film and he does a really good job, he gives a subdued performance but one that you can tell has the anger and emotion in it to make you root for him in this film. Jeffrey dean Morgan plays the villain in this film and he does a good job, he is a pretty cliché villain but he manages to add some of his charisma to the role which makes him entertaining to watch. Eva green plays a mute character in this film and I never really cared about her in this film, I struggle sometimes with mute characters to connect with them and I think this was one of the problems with green here. All the other characters are paper thin in this film and it is hard to really Care about them in this film. The story is a simple revenge story and when it focuses on that it does work like most films of this sort do. Its when this film tries to focus on other things that it falls down as you really won't care about it. The script is really poor in this film, there is nothing here that stands out or does a good job at making you care about the dramatic scenes and there is no humour to be seen here. The style of this film is very much a straight up western here and some of the action scenes are pretty cool. But this film feels really short and I do feel like this film could have done with being a little longer to help flesh out some of the motivations of some of the characters in the film. Overall this is a film that is just there, it isn't bad but it isn't good so it probably isn't worth a watch.
I think there are lot of reviews of people who never saw past the first 15 minutes of the film. This is not a "Danish Western", and all subtitling and Danish completely ends after the first 15 minutes. This is a solid, simple western through and through. It doesn't dwell on evil, it dwells on good people dealing with evil. The Salvation reaches back to a better time in film-making. It's a lesson on how a western is supposed to make you feel and what you're supposed to learn. The main protagonist is a metaphor for what a western is: a European going on with his life in a wild land, that gets hollowed out by it, and yet is the only mechanism keeping a fickle world together with the remaining good in his character. Nevermind the setting, nevermind the accents, a western is an exploration the elemental aspects of human nature, add some gun play, then it's all wrapped up with an "into the sunset" ending. That's what's going to happen here. Virtually everyone in this cast is a revelation. Jeffrey Dean Morgan would have been in a hundred cowboy movies in another time. Mads Mikkelsen is the perfect fit for the subdued killing machine he'll transform into, and Eva Green is the lady that does more with her eyes then all the men do with their mouths. This film, to me, is the quintessential example of how to build a modern western, from the ground up, without looking like you're trying to be clever. Just tell a solid story of great lose, and have the audience climb out with some semblance of redemption. Then you get on your horse, ride into the sunset, credits roll.
The American West in the 1870s. A European settler, Jon Jensen (Mads Mikkelsen), has just welcomed his wife and son to the country when they are kidnapped and murdered. He takes revenge on the murderers, only to discover that one was the brother of a local land baron, Henry Delarue. Delarue runs the local town with a brutal hand. Now he wants vengeance on the man who killed his brother and the local townspeople are too scared of him to stand up to him. Jon is fighting more than just the local thugs, he is facing the entire town...Pretty good, though had the potential to be great. Started very well, with a grittiness not always found in westerns. Jon Jensen's predicament was very intriguing and seemed hopeless, making it very engaging. The feeling of powerlessness and injustice added to this.Some good action scenes too, especially towards the end.However, from a point the plot becomes rather one-dimensional. The end result is far too neat, predictable and easy. There's no twists, no real dilemmas, no development, things just happen without much impediment or anything unexpected occurring.Ultimately, still reasonably good, but a bit disappointing in that it was set up for something even better.