Dead Man's Burden

I, personally, love slow burners like this one - with beautiful western scenery, long single- take shots, and interesting and attractive characters. I agree with nearly everything already mentioned in the previous reviews so won't repeat all that here. Save to say I felt the dialog, and this the film, was spoiled by Martha's mumbling! I had to turn on the sub-titles to understand what Clare Bowen was saying as she truly is one of the world's greatest mumblers. (Even in Nashville I have difficulty understanding her.) And even the sub-title writer must have had problems, because quite often in Martha's speech it would just say "inaudible". That said it is a beautiful western! And we don't see too many of them around these days.

Something different here. Story flows along not always in an expected direction. Directing and acting above average.

Dead Man's Burden was an incredible film and the end was enjoyably unexpected. Throughout the film, you focus on understanding each character and their motives. The scenery is beautiful as it takes place in a western "slow moving" deserted town but don't let the characters fool you - they are more deep, twisted, and intelligent than you think! After the movie finished, it was very easy to sit there and think back to all the 'signs'. I really want to see the movie again so I can watch the progression of how the characters became who they were. There are not many movies out there that put the focus on acting, plot and scenery. It seems movies have animations and various scenes that are very distracting and then they spoon feed you the story line - Dead Man's Burden did not do that and I enjoyed every minute of it.

It's technically very well done, the scenery is wonderful and it's a pretty good story. The acting is pretty good, too. So, why did I give it only five out of ten stars? There's just something about it, pacing maybe, that put me off. Or the ''look'' of it. It looks like it was shot with HD digital cams, and looks like the old TV Soaps used to look when they were shot on Video Tape, and everything looks a bit too 'real.'..Or something. Hard to describe.

Director Jared Mosche makes a fine feature film debut with "Dead Mans Burden" This film made its east cost premier at the 20th Hamptons International Film Festival. Mosche brilliantly captures the lawlessness of the mid to late nineteenth century American west. The film centers around the death of a family member, and the mine that wants to purchase the family ranch. Richard Riehle (from the comedy "Office Space") does a fine job playing the best and only friend of the deceased. His performance captures the loneliness and disconnection of a person living in the middle of nowhere, coping with the death of his friend. Hopefully this film finds a distributor.