A fine updating of the western genre with some social conscience

Rating: 8/10 (25 September 2017)

This film is a deconstruction of the American dream, the civilizing mission and the taming of 'the west'. There's a lone lawman ( woman actually), a shoot out at the Corral (close enough), the horses take a rest while snow-mobiles ( due to snow it's basically a black and white movie) do the cross-country stuff; there's old hands (improbably old in view of the ambient mortality) and greenhorns, and, to the Europe-side viewer, too many guns in the hands of people who haven't received enough vetting. There's also hurting people ( hurting animals too), personal motivations, tragedies to live with, hesitant conversations, some psychological closeness, and on occasions, just being there. I was moved. There may have been some romance ( I blinked for a moment). I loved that Indian Martin says some obscure things while the busy highway traffic races past his isolated homestead. Even if your official position is to support the rule of law, the denouement is satisfying. An actual grown-up western. Bravo