34/29
In the winter of 1862, during the Civil War, the US Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the uncharted western territories. Minervini had the set built in Montana and then let the characters live in it for two months. The dialogue and thoughts spoken are those that the actors encountered while living in the wilderness, in the imagination of the soldiers of the Civil War. The Damned: In the winter of 1862, a volunteer unit of Union soldiers is sent to protect mountainous areas, they are not told where, we do not even learn the names of the soldiers. After the regular troops set off, they are under the command of a John Brown-style, bearded patriarch, and his teenage sons have also joined. The troops are a mixed group, some are middle-aged and even elderly, most of them are in their thirties. All have no military experience, but they share knowledge and pass on skills. We witness moving sentries, potshots at distant horsemen. A buffalo is shot and slaughtered. The bleak landscape, the hills, the mountain meadows, the drifting snow, the dwindling cold rations all heighten the sense of existential despair. A battle is raging, we see not the enemy but the losses of the unit. War is hell, especially when you don’t know why you’re there anymore. It’s very much a Ken Loach-style film, with no daily dialogue and lots of ordinary people acting, amateurish as the soldiers. This improvisation leads to philosophical, religious and political debates around campfires. Some of them overstay their welcome. But that’s only a minor distraction from the raw depiction of men at war. Written and directed by Roberto Minervini, 8/10.
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