Westerns went from cowboys and Indians, to lone gunfighters, to revisionist texts trying to dispel the myths its predecessors made so popular. Nowadays, the genre is more concerned with depicting settlers fighting to survive in a harsh, unforgiving terrain – in 2010, director Kelly Reichardt wove one such tale with Meek’s Cutoff. A new film will further explore this theme, and, like Reichardt’s historically-based work, it features a strong female lead.
A trailer for Dead Man’s Burden was released, and the footage offers a balance of indie style with plenty of guns, blood and beautiful cinematography. The feature film debut from documentary producer Jared Moshe (Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel) presents a post-Civil War narrative where a brother-sister reunion causes complications for a married frontier couple. All in all, it seems very appealing – the plot promises a little mystery, and star Clare Bowen looks totally badass with her arsenal of 19th-century arms. I’m sold. See trailer and synopsis via iTunes below:
Synopsis:
The year is 1870, and a fragmented America still strains to pick up the pieces from a savage Civil War. Martha (Clare Bowen) and her husband Heck (David Call) are living on a homestead on the rural New Mexico frontier, struggling to make ends meet. When a mining company expresses interest in buying their land, Martha and Heck see their ticket to a better life. Their plans are complicated when Martha’s oldest brother Wade (Barlow Jacobs)—believed lost in the war—returns to the family homestead. A defector to the Union Army, Wade discovers Martha is hiding secrets of her own. The siblings are torn between a desire to reconcile with the only family they have left, and their clashing convictions.
Dead Man’s Burden hits select theaters on May 3rd.
Do you think Dead Man’s Burden looks like an entertaining western?