Drama | History | Western, US, 2013, English, 92 minutes, color
description
Set during the Civil War, we follow 13-year-old Will, a fatherless black boy who has taken up with a bounty hunter gang. Gang leader Burrell sends Will on a risky mission to retrieve Nate, a wanted black man with a lucrative bounty on his head. To ensure Will’s return with Nate, Burrell threatens the boy with death if he doesn’t bring back his quarry. Will and his fellow gang member Marcus (another black man) find Nate digging graves in a Union graveyard and convince their unwitting prey to follow them back to Burrell’s gang, under the ruse that they’re leading him to see his dying brother. Along the way, the initially aloof Nate and Will begin to bond, developing an unexpected surrogate father-son relationship. As unforeseen events complicate the journey and Will grows closer to Nate, he is consumed by a wearying decision and a moral dilemma: Should he deliver Nate to the gang, or tell him the truth and risk death if the gang finds out he let Nate go?
contributors
director Chris Eska
cast Tishuan Scott, Ashton Sanders, Keston John, Bill Oberst Jr., Christine Horn, Alfonso Freeman
producers Jacob Esquivel, Jason Wehling
screenwriter Chris Eska
cinematographer Yasu Tanida
editor Chris Eska
summary review
An outstanding, satisfying film. Visually beautiful, thematically complex and poetic, it builds to an inevitable tragic and sorrowful dénouement but ends with a sliver of hope for the future. Lingers in the mind.
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ratings
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| script/story | [rating=9] | |
| acting | [rating=9] | |
| cinematography | [rating=9] | |
| technical quality | [rating=9] | |
| afterglow | [rating=9] | |
| [rating=0] | ||
| Overall | [rating=9] | |
imDB info here
The Retrieval