Brimstone (2016 film)
Brimstone is a 2016 Western film written and directed by Martin Koolhoven, starring Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Emilia Jones, Kit Harington, and Carice van Houten. The film is a Dutch-American as well as French, German, Belgian and Swedish international production. It was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on 3 September 2016, where it caused controversy. It premiered in the Netherlands on 12 January 2017, where it was very well received, as in the rest of Europe and was released on 10 March in the United States, where  it received mixed reviews from critics. Plot. The plot consists of four acts, which are presented in anachronic order. The chronological order is acts 3 (Genesis), 2 (Exodus), 1 (Revelation), 4 (Retribution). So, after the first act, Revelation, the following acts are what happened before and the fourth act is chronologically the last. 1. Revelation Liz lives in the old west with her husband Eli and two children: Eli's son Matthew from Eli's prior marriage, and Liz and Eli's young daughter Sam. Liz is a midwife who can hear but is mute, and so communicates through sign  language. A new minister comes to their church, and the moment that Liz hears his voice, she seems to recognize him and is terrified. Later that day Liz is forced to choose between delivering a baby safely or saving its mother; she chooses to euthanise the baby and save the mother, without telling the mother until after the procedure is finished. Afterwards, the father, Nathan, blames Liz. A drunken Nathan later shows up at Eli and Liz's house, violent and threatening; Nathan claims Liz is responsible for his son's death. In the middle of the fight, the Reverend  shows up and tells Nathan to leave. He then goes into Eli's house and has a mysterious talk with Liz, saying she is guilty of the murder of Nathan's son and must be punished. As Eli overhears some of the conversation, the Reverend leaves the house. Later Eli's sheep are found dead, and he seeks out Nathan, who has since disappeared. Liz later sneaks off at night to murder the Reverend, but finds her daughter's doll in the Reverend's bed instead. Meanwhile, the Reverend disembowels Eli, and leaves him to die in his barn. As  he is dying, Eli tells Matthew to take the family up into the mountains to Eli's father, before the boy shoots him. Liz and the children flee the farm. 2. Exodus A young girl named Joanna walking through the desert is picked up by a Chinese family. In the mining town of Bismuth, she's sold to a brothel owned by Frank. Joanna is protected by Sally until Sally is hanged for shooting a violent customer; Elizabeth then protects Joanna. After Elizabeth bites the tongue of an abusive customer, her tongue is cut off in punishment. Joanna teaches Elizabeth  sign language from a book the doctor gave her. Elizabeth plans to sneak out of Bismuth to start a new life, and arranges through a marriage broker to marry Eli. The Minister comes to the brothel and becomes violent with Joanna. Elizabeth saves Joanna and is murdered by the Minister. Joanna slashes his throat and runs away, cutting off her own tongue and taking Elizabeth's place with Eli. 3. Genesis In the desert, two badly wounded men, Samuel and Wolf, are the last survivors in a dispute over gold that has left several other men dead. They depart on  a single horse. Young Joanna lives with her mother, Anna, and father, who is the Minister. Samuel and Wolf collapse at the farm and Joanna secretly cares for them. Anna confronts the Minister when she realizes he lusts after their daughter, so he beats and humiliates her by placing a scold's bridle on her head. In response, Anna commits suicide in full view of the church congregation. The next day the Minister takes Joanna to church and starts to perform a wedding ceremony between himself and his daughter. Samuel tries to rescue her, but the Minister murders him. Her  father whips Joanna and rapes her. In the morning she runs off. 4. Retribution Matthew is shot by the Minister as he follows Liz to her father-in-law's place in the mountains. He murders her father-in-law and tells Liz he will beat and rape her daughter, but Liz murders him instead. Some time later, after Liz has turned Eli's place into a sawmill, Nathan arrives to arrest her. The Minister had sent him to Bismuth where he became a deputy and then sheriff. Having found a wanted poster of Elizabeth Brundy (the woman without a  tongue who killed Frank before she saved Liz/Joanna), Nathan has come to arrest her (Liz). As Nathan is escorting her onto a ferry, with a last look at her daughter playing on the shore, Liz throws herself in the lake and drowns. Her daughter Sam, now a grown woman with a child of her own, remembers her well. Production. On 5 February 2015, Guy Pearce and Mia Wasikowska were the first to be announced as part of the cast of the film. Later, Robert Pattinson came on board to portray an outlaw along with Carice van Houten. In May  2015, Koolhoven confirmed that Jack Roth had joined the cast of the film. In June 2015, "The Hollywood Reporter" confirmed that Dakota Fanning and Kit Harington had replaced Wasikowska and Pattinson in the film, respectively. In 2017, Pattinson said he regretted not doing "Brimstone" and called it "his own stupid fault". Principal photography began from 15 June 2015, and took place in Germany, Hungary, Austria and Spain. Release. "Brimstone"'s first commercial release was in The Netherlands on 12 January 2017, becoming Martin Koolhoven's fifth consecutive hit film. The film was also released on 10 March 2017, in selected  theaters and video on demand in the United States. It was sold to more than 80 countries in the world, making it the best sold Dutch movie ever. Festival screenings. "Brimstone" was shown in competition at the Venice Film Festival. After Venice, the film had its North American premiere as a "Special Presentation" at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received positive reviews. as it later did in other festivals like the Sitges Film Festival, Critical reception. In The Netherlands, the film received generally positive reviews from critics and opened strongly. The readers of "True West Magazine" chose the  movie as Best Foreign Western Movie. Koolhoven won the Gouden Pen (Golden Pen) for the screenplay and the Gouden Film (Golden Film) for the film. 29 September 2017 "Brimstone" won six Golden Calves (often called ""The Dutch Oscars"") at the Netherlands Film Festival, breaking the old record of four. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 42% based on 76 reviews and the average rating is 5.09/10. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 45 based on 17 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". While "The Independent" wrote ""Brimstone" is raw and very powerful  filmmaking, a movie that can't help but get under your skin", "Variety" wrote it was "highfalutin exploitation", blaming it on the Netherlands, writing, "It is, after all, a country that ever since the 1960s, especially in Amsterdam, has profferred a more liberal view than almost any other place of what might euphemistically be termed 'youthful sexuality'." Roger Ebert's publication referred to the film as "dimwitted, amoral exploitation" and accused Koolhoven of identifying most with the murderous and incestuous Reverend. Kevin Maher of the "Times UK" called it "an exploitation western that veers from self-importance to high camp ." "Brimstone" was released in the United Kingdom 29 September 2017, and was well received by British press. "Empire Magazine" gave it four stars and called it "white-knuckle tense", and Peter Bradshaw wrote in "The Guardian": "This epically long, lurid, violent western from Dutch film-maker Martin Koolhoven has a kind of Tarantino-ish prolixity and narrative ingenuity. Despite its very indulgent length, it never bores."