Hawk

Hawk is a captivating and visually stunning tale of a young boy's journey to manhood through learning the lesson of morality.

We follow Rowan through his childhood as he is taught about the world around him with stories from his Taid, a mysterious man that seems to know more about the world than he confesses to.

The countryside is shown in dramatic landscapes, with a plethora of green forest and hills. The CGI used on the skies is dramatic and enables the world to fully form as a place of nature; a nomadic reserve full of life.

The CGI throughout the film is wonderfully enriching; each sky and landscape is used to full potential and adds to the atmosphere of the narrative as a whole.

There is a strong focus on Welsh lore, which creates a magical atmosphere. However, it feels somewhat compromised by the lack of background story development; we do not learn fully who the characters are or why they live alone, despite the use of a voice-over.

This creates a distance between the characters and the audience as further understanding is compromised by lack of development.

The story is enticing to watch and the use of the Welsh language is clever and intelligently adds to the dramatic atmosphere.

The musical score works discreetly to add an extra layer of atmosphere to each scene when used, and adds a magical feel to the film as a whole.

Hawk falls in between a short and a feature-length film, and it is pronounced in the way that the narrative is large and substantial enough to be developed further (which would push it into the boundary of the feature-length) and yet it is too rich to be squeezed into the short category.

Hawk is a world of intrigue that is well worth viewing not least for its visual beauty, but more so the interesting story of a world that is highly imaginative and inviting.

Hawk is a dramatic short fantasy film written by Alex McArdell and M J McMahon that delves into the classic storyline of an internal struggle with good and evil. The battle is showcased using the main character Rowan who is brilliantly played by both Robert Gwyn Davin and Steffan Thomas at different stages of the characters life.

The story is set in stunning mystical Welsh landscapes, creating an extremely dramatic backdrop for this suspenseful short fantasy film. The dramatic wide shots of the eery hills with perfectly pairing sinister music creates an intense viewing for the audience.

The film explores traditional folklore with Rowan and his father Gawain at the forefront. It is obvious to the viewer that Gawain cares deeply for his son and wants to give him the best possible chance of survival in the wilderness. This naturally makes the viewer emotionally connected to the characters and creates an interest in the story that is about to unfold.

The pace of the film was rather slow, focusing more on dramatic drawn out shots rather than plot or character explanation. Although this is typical of the fantasy form, it definitely was not an easy storyline to follow considering that it was such a short production. However, I believe this also played in to the films overall mystical feel.

This is the tale of a boy living in the wilderness with his grandfather, and learning the ways of nomad life. He follows his grandfather's teachings, and fervently believes in traditional stories of spirits, until one day the boy finds his grandfather dead in the forest. The boy seeks solace in a potion of magic mushrooms and becomes entranced. In a daze of hallucinations he panics and commits an ungodly act, upturning the natural balance of nature. He is now forever in the debt of an eerie God. Or is he?

This unusual tale lies on the boundary between reality and the sublime. Stunning cinematography, seamless visual effects and colourist skills, help to bring out the emotion and create atmosphere in the film with the aid of an intense and powerful choral soundtrack.

Parts of this film felt a little rushed or unclear, which is a shame, because it could easily be a really fantastic piece. I feel that more work could have been done to develop the characters and clarify the storyline, which left me a little confused in places. The acting skills also tended to be a little over the top, in contrast to the beautiful realism of the visual effects.

Overall, I feel the technical skill displayed in the film made up for its flaws, and meant I could enjoy the piece based on its creativity.

Hawk has many aspects that are powerful, and more that have potential to be powerful, but my feeling towards the content was predominantly confusion. Although it featured some beautiful landscape and a wonderfully soaring score, the film didn't quite seem to do justice to the wonderful idea at its heart. It felt like it should be a lyrical tale of folklore, a mystical underworld land and one boy's journey into understanding the spiritual worlds of nature and beyond human kind, but didn't quite seem to make it.

The tale is told so much in voice-over from the protagonist Rowan, and there are choppy time jumps so often that it loses the linear narrative and breaks up the genuinely touching relationship between a boy – Rowan - and his grandfather. The way the mystical world is portrayed is tense and at times effectively scary, shown in flashes as the character sees it. This is well done, but I wasn't entirely sure why they'd left the world of humans in the first place and as a result of not knowing what was at stake or their reasons for leaving, I didn't care as much about them as I wanted to.

The way to access this world appears to be through drinking magic mushroom tea. Although at first I was sceptical of an old man getting high while looking after his grandson, it became clear that this was a gateway to a more meaningful world. The dialogue is mostly good, but at times teeters rather too close to the edge of being trite and there were some things I'd prefer to have seen happening rather than been told.

The film really came together at the end, where all is revealed quite beautifully and I really felt for Rowan. The point becomes clear through the moral message and the strongest part of this film is the last ten minutes where the pace picked up, I understood the situation Rowan had found himself in and could empathise with it, and it felt like for the first time, there really was something at stake.

Although I feel that the film was let down slightly by the script and the choice to have a narrator, the idea behind this film is very strong, the images are powerful, the music is wonderful and the end is moving. Hawk is definitely worth watching.

Hawk is an extremely ambitious fantasy film that at its heart has a simple and recognisable story of the internal struggle of good versus bad, told on a grand, epic and audacious scale. The technical elements of this film are a real triumph, with the cinematography and score taking at points precedence over the transparency of the bold but convoluted plot. Set in the mesmerising mountains of Snowdonia and encompassing rarely featured Welsh language and locale, this film offers a bold and original take on the fantasy genre and achieves an admirable and commendable final product.

Immediately the viewer can appreciate the cinematography. The film opens with a striking wide shot of adult Rowan (Robert Gwyn Davin), set against a bleak and enraged Snowdonia horizon, as aerial shots of the majestic Snowdonia mountain range perfectly set the fantastical scene. With limited dialogue throughout, the challenge is set for director of photography, Martin Hill, to guide you on this journey, which, along with Stuart Hancock's score, is expertly navigated and are both a real highlight of the film. The original classical score from start to finish is intensely scintillating and is easily a one of the strongest components of the film that imbeds itself into your unconscious long after the film has finished.

Where the cinematography, location and score leave you wanting more, a particularly difficult aspect to navigate was the conceivably intentionally-illusive plot. Though of course ambiguity is at this fantasy films heart, it felt at points that it left the audience with too much work to do and at times felt like crucial plot points were omitted or not emphasised on enough. Furthermore, much of the film anchors itself between the relationship between the well-delivered performance of Gawain (Philip Madoc) and young Rowan (Steffan Thomas). However, at points this relationship was difficult to invest in and get behind, resulting in depleted levels of character empathy and insight that were, specifically in Rowan's case, needed later in the film. That being said, many elements of the story really stood out and persisted. Rowan's internal battle between good and bad was plain to see and was well delivered by Robert Gwyn Davin in the final third of the film. The theme of taking only what you need from the land and treating nature with respect resonated particularly well and some nine years after its release, and is arguably more imperative and relevant now, than it ever was.

Undeniably, to deliver a mythic, fantasy film is no easy feat but to deliver one that is original, daring and restricted to a short film and independent budget is an almighty task. Hawk is as close to the finished article as you will find. One can only commend director M. J. McMahon for his ambition for the scale and size of this project, and through captivating cinematography, an astonishing score and a highly original and ambitious plot, Hawk achieves a great deal.