Slow West (film)

I'm unsure what genre this film would be: it is sweet and dreamy yet contains emotional turmoil and tragedy with a splash of absurdist humour. It could be best described as "philosophical-action". It is set in the wild west days of northern America where the western frontier was abound with lawlessness and life was cheap. The main protagonist is a thin, pale Scottish lad, Jay, with large blue eyes. He has arrived in America and is heading westward in search of his lost love Rose Ross. Rose and her father John were falsely accused of murder and fled Scotland. As per the American dream, they came to start a new life somewhere on the frontier.

Jay is a romantic pacifist without a single violent bone in his body. He looks at the stars, ponders about the natives on the moon and recites poetry. He doesn't know how to shoot a gun nor has the gumption to use it; he is completely hopeless out in the wild. Jay meets Silas (the lone ranger) by happenstance and the two make a deal where Silas will escort Jay safely across the western frontier to Rose in return for a sum of money. Silas is a man of few words that carries a lot of loneliness and pain. He grew up with a gang of bounty hunters but peeled himself away from them to seek a life of peace while at the same time putting a target on his back: a deal with the devil is always hard to break.

Initially, Jay doesn't entirely trust Silas and attempts to make the journey himself. In his final attempt, he gets seduced by Werner: a man of knowledge and wisdom who also ponders about the world and the meaning of it all. There is a segment of a philosophical discussion that takes place between them. Werner is in the process of capturing the knowledge on the lives and culture of the native Indians as, in his opinion, once they are near-extinct and become the minority to the Europeans, their culture and existence will be romanticised and exoticized without any objectivity The two spend the night wondering about time, the universe and fleeting human existence.

The scenery in the film is simply stunning and the white clarity of the sunlight adds a surreal feel to the film. It is fantastic to see the New Zealand landscape presented in its raw beauty without adulteration by any CGI which sometimes happens in other major films set in New Zealand.

As Jay and Silas continue on in their journey, we discover that there is a handsome bounty on Rose and her father and all the bounty hunters are heading out west alongside Jay and Silas. It is a matter of time before they are found dead or alive as $2000 sits on their heads and Jay and Silas must get there before the bounty hunters.

I am unsure what to make of the humour in this film except to compare it to the likes of Park Chan-wook's films (especially Old Boy). It is at times “inappropriate”, but also fun and childlike. For me the humour exalts Slow West into a reflective work of art rather than a standard western as the humour diminishes the dominating force of the violence and brings to focus the hero's journey each human is embarked on.

The Death of Louis XIV (film)

The climax of the film perhaps starts and ends with the title. The grandiose phrase announcing the king’s death. The viewers are then carried gently down the two hours of exquisitely produced ‘slow death’ river. It is not merely the death of a king, but of rational thought and purpose. We see a failed state, drowning in its champagne induced vomit, unable to take action.

We see the sycophantic servants pandering to his Majesty’s every need, while undertaking warfare of ego and pettiness among themselves. But this is just a manifestation of the systematic decay that had set in and been seething for a long time, getting more absurd each day. The level of corruption so great and the suffering of people so horrific it mobilized the citizens to take action just a generation later.

In our lives, we see the EU and the UN growing morbidly obese in their spirits, its members squabbling over career opportunities and political grandstanding. We see politicians, instead of bringing people together, choosing to divide the population by identity politics to raise their popularity. Ideologies have become dull to the changes that have occurred around them. Institutions like the FBI are used as political tools against opponents. Where are the concerns for the population? for public service? Such purposeful question have long been forgotten among our leaders.

The film is beautiful to watch, reminiscent of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon in texture and light. The level of luxury is quite intense to watch as (in The Death) each activity, no matter how banal, is completed with the most ceremonial trimmings one could possibly imagine. It’s exquisite, it’s comical, and it’s grotesque. I would highly recommend this film to anyone that thinks about the world.

While The Death of Louis XIV for me is in a way an expression of the status quo in the governance across our civilization, I do not despair. We see signs of changes already and Nature says what is so corrupt and self indulged eventually gives away. We’ve seen presidents get impeached, a decision made after pending for decades-Jerusalem (for better or for worse), drug reform happening all around the world, heads of state in western democracies being led by many women, reforms in Saudi Arabia, an invigorated African economy; for me, these are all indications that positive changes are abound. From time to time I think it is worth asking ourselves what this is for? As I write and reach out to you, I believe the ultimate purpose of politics and media is communication with each other for the betterment of humanity.