20/12
In the winter of 1862, during the American Civil War, the U.S. Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the uncharted western territories. Minervini had a set built in Montana, then allowed the actors to live there for two months. The dialogue and thoughts expressed are those that the actors came up with while living in the middle of nowhere, imagining themselves as soldiers in the Civil War. Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to defend a mountainous territory, we are not told where it is, we are not even given the names of the soldiers. After the regular troops set out, they are commanded by a John Brown-esque patriarch with a flowing beard, and his teenage sons have also enlisted. The soldiers are a mixed breed, some middle-aged, even old, most in their thirties. All have no military experience, knowledge is shared and skills are passed on. We witness mobile sentries shooting at distant riders. A buffalo is shot and slaughtered. The bleak landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the snowstorms, the food shortages – all of this reinforces the sense of existential despair. There’s a battle going on, we don’t see the enemy, we see the losses of the unit. War is hell, especially when you don’t know why you’re there. A Ken Loach-style film, with no set dialogue from day to day and lots of ordinary people playing amateurs as soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political discussions around campfires. Some of them are too long. But that’s a small distraction from this stark portrayal of men at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.
