600 Meilen

This films basic plot is ok. However, the movie has one major flaw. It is painfully slow and develops at a snails pace. This has an adverse impact on the whole film. Neither the story or the characters progress sufficiently to keep your interest. Also the hand held camera style is used quite a bit. Whilst it may be intended to give the film reality. It actually tends to make the film appear low budget. In the end this film is boring and it's a struggle to make it to the end.

600 miles at 85 minutes is a relatively short feature, but in terms of screenplay and storyline, it actually seems padded out at that length. Truth to tell, though long on distance according to the title, the movie is brief on story. There's plenty of footage of people travelling in darkly lit vehicles, not saying a lot or saying nothing at all. Consider Tim Roth's Hank Harris ATF officer is really only in about the last hour of the film (at most). It takes close to 30 minutes to set things up, before he arrives on the scene and even then, there hasn't been a lot happening. I'm still not sure what the film is trying to say. That gun-running for cartels is dangerous and sucks in too many young Mexicans seeking the fast road out of poverty. Well, we probably already knew that.

The first act involved Arnulfo's American associate walking in and out of several gun shops, whilst looking at guns and talking to staff. Director Gabriel Ripstein doesn't mind repeating himself, but I'm still a little vague at what he was messaging. Suffice to say we get to the denouement relatively quickly, but that all ends up being somewhat ill-defined too. Kind of inevitable I'd suggest, for what really is a pretty half-baked production that somehow managed to get Tim Roth involved. Give me its bigger-budgeted cousin any day of the week.

600 miles starts off with a very Intriguing look into America's gun control policy.

I learned a lot about how and where I can purchase a firearm. Some instances I sincerely hope are being over exaggerated by the film.

The movie really comes to life the moment Tim Roth's character comes into it. It's a slow paced drama, that feeds on his low key and very effective performance, as an ATF officer, very imperfect in doing a very dangerous job.

His relationship with Arnulfo, a weapons smuggler who kidnaps him was fantastic. Every thing was so subtle as these guys barely said but a few words to each other, yet you could see the connection coming between them. Just amazing and effective filmmaking.

I also like how the movie was dubbed in both Spanish and English. Not that you really needed dialog to understand the movie.

It was a small movie that was able to tap into the human emotion and really suck you in with the great performances and excellent film structure.

I liked this movie. It's good for washing you off Hollywood stuff once in a while. The camera behavior differs from the habitual and leaves you pondering and doing your own interpretation in a variety of moments. This different take leaves you in the edge of the couch sometimes! It also shows how easy it is for a stupid young man to buy loads of guns and how easy it is for a young man to choose the wrong path.

Laid back approach to exciting drama that gets where it's going to very slowly and quietly. For the most part though the director keeps us distant from the characters and the action. Unfortunately this limits our involvement.