12/47
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the unexplored western territories. Minervini had the set built in Montana and the cast live in it for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are those the actors came up with while living in the wilderness imagining themselves as soldiers in the Civil War. The Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to defend a mountainous area. We are not told where it is, we are not even told the names of the soldiers. After the regular troops leave, 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 mixed bunch, some middle-aged, even old, most in their thirties. All lack military experience, but they share their knowledge and skills are passed on. We witness mobile guards and gunfire at distant horsemen. A buffalo is shot and slaughtered. The desolate landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the driving snow, the cold rations running out, all contribute to a sense of existential despair. There is a battle going on, we don’t see the enemy, we see the unit’s losses. War is hell, especially when you no longer know why you are there. A Ken Loach-style film, with no set dialogue from day to day and lots of ordinary people acting amateurishly like the soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around the campfire. Some of them go on too long. But it’s a small distraction from this raw portrayal of men at war. Screenplay and direction: Roberto Minervini, 8/10.
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