The genre of the classic 'Western' has been dead for at least 40 years. Even in its last years as a serious filmic category, the most interesting films were no longer produced in the US but Europe, mainly in Italy. The so-called 'Spagetti Western' was more raw, brutal and nihilistic as the classic Western and didn't focus on heroes that rode off into the sunset but instead on the violence, murder, filth, and hypocrisy of the American dream. Echoing this tradition is Kristian Levring's THE SALVATION, a Danish Western filmed in South Africa. It's ideological framing seems to be directly borrowed from Levring's Dogma colleague Lars von Trier. However, in contrast to von Trier, Levring has been to the USA. His view on the country that epitomizes capitalism is sceptical if not downright cynical.
The film tells the story of a Danish soldier Jon (Mads Mikkelsen), who left Europe after Denmark was defeated by Prussia and Austria in 1864 for the US to build a new life. Once settled he sends for his wife and son to the promised land, but once off the train and in the stagecoach to the farm, they are brutally murdered. Jon tracks them down, kills them and sets a spiral of violence into motion. At the center of this story is oil and what lengths people will to go for this black gold. The reference to contemporary America in this Danish twist to the genre is obvious.

Michael Meyns