23/44
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the US Army sends a company of volunteers to patrol the unexplored western territories. Minervini built the set in Montana, then let the cast live there for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are those that the actors invented while living in the wilderness imagining themselves as soldiers in the Civil War. The Damned: The winter of 1862, a unit of Union volunteers has been sent to defend the mountainous territory, we are not told where it is, we do not even learn the names of the soldiers. After the regular troops have left, they are under the command of a John Brown-style patriarch with a flowing beard, his teenage sons have also enlisted. The troops are a motley crew, some middle-aged, even elderly, most in their thirties. All with no military experience, they share knowledge and skills are passed on. We witness mobile sentries, gunfire at distant horsemen. A buffalo is shot and slaughtered, the desolate landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the falling snow, the cold rations running low, all contribute to a growing sense of existential despair. A battle takes place, we don’t see the enemy, we see the casualties of the unit. War is hell, especially when you no longer know why you are there. Very much like a Ken Loach-style film, with no fixed dialogue from day to day and with many ordinary people acting, amateurs like the soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around campfires. Some of which go on too long. But it is a minor distraction from this raw depiction of men at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.