A lone American rider (Sam Riley) reaches a small village in the Alps with seemingly innocuous intentions. He speaks german owing to his German mother. No one knows anything about this silent stranger – and the stranger reciprocates with coldness as cold as the snow-laden mountains looking from above. But all is not as simple as it seems – when the Brenner brothers who are in control of the small village – start dying one by own – the stranger is not left easily.
Language:
German
Running Time:
114 min
Rating:
–
Release date:
13 February 2014
Directed by:
Andreas Prochaska
Produced by:
Helmut Grasser
Stefan Arndt
Written by:
Martin Ambrosch
Andreas Prochaska
Starring:
Sam Riley
Paula Beer
Tobias Moretti
Helmuth Häusler
Johannes Nikolussi
Martin Leutgeb
Hans-Michael Rehberg
Music by:
Matthias Weber
Shot by:
Thomas W. Kiennast
Editing by:
Daniel Prochaska

What’s Hot

  • This movie is heavily influenced by spaghetti westerns – all the standard motif of a spaghetti Western – a wafer thin story line, a plot based on revenge, Leone style ‘a man with no past’, slowly unfurling sequences that end up in bloody and beautiful action sequences edited to unconventional songs & very little dialogues. The director Andreas Prochaska seems heavily influenced by John Ford, Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino and other masters of Western genre.
  • Though the story line is wafer thin and the pacing extremely slow- there are a couple of good twists in the movie that make it worthwhile. The way the action packed moments are written are engaging as well. The scene where the stranger played by Sam Riley punishes the landlady of the tavern and the finale with the Old Brenner are nicely written – but stripped barely to the essentials of a typical western.
  • The action sequences are bloody violent and are choreographed with style. There is something about any well done revenge flick that makes the audience forgive the many other possible mistakes in such a movie. This movie is no different. Each of the Brenner brothers die in a fanciful way – and the ‘MASS’ of the Stranger keeps on building with each of his kills.
  • The cinematography is beautiful – faces in the faint yellow glow of the lanterns, majestic Alps and eerily misty mountains are beautifully shot. The usage of music is exemplary casually reminding the soundtracks used in Quentin Tarantino’s movies. The director certainly has a knack for track selection.

What’s Not

  • Sam Riley who plays the stranger (though he brings an international presence to this movie) unfortunately doesn’t possess the charisma needed for playing the hero of a western. This may stick out a little. The grand and boisterous action sequences get over and when Sam Riley stands up – one may find the applauses dwindling a tad bit involuntarily.
  • There is nothing to the story – and the pacing is extremely slow – other than the action sequences and this might induce sleep.

Badges

Screened at

The Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) 2014

The Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) 2014 scheduled from Dec 18 -25 is an annual film festival organised by a film society, the Indo Cine Appreciation Foundation (ICAF), with the support of the government of Tamil Nadu, the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce and the Film Federation of India.

Event Info

Date of Screening : 18-Dec-2014
Venue and Time : Woodland, 3.00 PM

About

Verdict

Verdict Stamp

A spaghetti western shootout with little-to-no story that is watchable primarily because of the exquisite camera work. In spite of being ultra-slow at the start, the film builds up the pace as it moves towards the end.