39/48
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a company of volunteers to patrol the uncharted western territories. Minervini had a set built in Montana, and the actors lived there for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are what the actors imagined living in the wilderness and imagining themselves as Civil War soldiers. The Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to defend a mountainous area. We don’t know where they are, we don’t even know the soldiers’ names. After the regular troops leave, they find themselves under the leadership of a John Brown-style patriarch with a flowing beard; his teenage sons have also come forward. The troops are a mixed bunch, some middle-aged, even old, most in their thirties. All lack military experience, but knowledge and skills are shared. We witness mobile guards and shots fired at distant riders. A buffalo is shot and killed. The barren landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the drifting snow, the cold rations that are running out, create a feeling of existential despair. The battle is going on, we don’t see the enemy, we see the losses of the unit. War is hell, especially when you no longer know why you are there. A film in the style of Ken Loach, without a fixed dialogue every day and with many ordinary people acting amateurishly like soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around the campfire. Some of them take too long. But it distracts a little from this raw depiction of men in war. Screenplay and direction: Roberto Minervini, 8/10.