In classic Westerns the American West was regarded as a wide open space, a place with no set order ruled by violence. Revisionist Westerns, which are already half a century old, revealed what was underneath the consolidation of the West and subverted the traditional self-aggrandizing US ideology. What type of Western is suitable for today then? John MacLean’s post-modern Western SLOW WEST reels in on a young Scottish migrant setting off towards the West. Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is not searching for freedom but is rather on a quest to find his young love who he wrongly believes fled due to him.

Though he is meticulously dressed and well-equipped he soon meets upon a calamity - the first one of many. Headhunter Silas (Michael Fassbender) gets him out of the hairy situation and the young kid soon exchanges his last bit of money in return for protection while he continues searching for his love. The ‘slow’ in the title should not give the impression that the film does not get down to business and the inexperienced lovelorn young man and the hardened headhunter are not the archetypical naïf and cynic. The film’s cleverness lies in the ambivalence between them and the manner in which romantic idealism and wily survival skills link up.

Sebastian Markt (INDIEKINO MAGAZIN)

Translation: Elinor Lewy