Gold

RELEASED IN 2013 and written & directed by Thomas Arslan, "Gold" covers events in 1898 when a single woman (Nina Hoss) joins a small group of other prospectors heading north through Canada to the Klondike gold fields near Dawson City. Their numbers dwindle as they face challenging hardships.

My title blurb says it all. Just as "Meek's Cutoff" (2010) covered the adversities of traveling in the late 1800s on an alternative route of the Oregon Trail and "The Homesman" (2014) covered journeying from western Nebraska to Iowa, so "Gold" features the challenges of traveling from Ashcroft, BC, where the train tracks end, to Dawson City in the Yukon territories.

Needless to say, "Gold" favors gritty realism to conventional Western staples. Still, there are Indians, Old West boom towns, covered wagons, a possible hanging, alcohol and a believable shootout. I think it's a little more compelling than those other two flicks, although those are worthwhile too if you favor mundane accounts of arduous travel in the Old West. If you'd like to see a more eventful old-fashioned Western covering similar terrain, check out "The Far Country" (1954) with Jimmy Stewart.

I suppose the movie should've contained at least one rain sequence, particularly considering it takes place in the Great Northwest. But shooting in the rain is challenging & costly so the viewer is asked to read in-between-the-lines that they experienced rainy days. The film never shows any of the characters 'going to the bathroom' either, but we're to assume it happened.

A German/Canadian production, THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 41 minutes and was shot in British Columbia, Canada. At least half the dialogue is in German with English subtitles.

GRADE: B

This film is outstanding in its portrayal of pioneer travel. The trials and tribulations, from the petty to the disastrous are endured as they really were endured. There always will be characters like Emily and Carl who will keep it together for the whole team, despite being just as worn out as everybody else. And the cruel blow at the end, bitter and crunching does not deter the survivor from going on.

This movie (which I saw during the 2013 film-festival in Copenhagen), is a very atypical western, not only because of the (mostly) German-speaking cast, but also because of it's dark moods, and almost complete lack of conventional "western"-themes, which makes it more appealing to people that are normally not too keen on westerns, but still has enough western-elements in it to not disappoint genre-fans either.

The beautiful Nina Hoss - known for her portrayal of "Barbara" (in the 2012 movie of the same name), as well as the vampire-movie "We Are the Night" - here plays Emily Meyer, a single woman who is determined to travel alone to Klondyke in the late 1890s, along with a motley crew of settlers and gold-diggers, who all have their own reasons for making the long and dangerous journey.

However, they do not know what will await them during the trip, as both the harsh nature of the land comes as a surprise to them, as well as a couple of ruthless killers are on their trail, which takes its toll on the travelers.

It is a slow-moving, but very gripping and dark tale about (among other things) trying to conquer both new territory, but also about finding yourself (and others), when placed in a bad situation. It also has quite a lot of stunning cinematography, which really captures the landscapes beautifully, and places the audience in the right mood.

The director, Thomas Arslan, is still relatively unknown, although I have seen two of his films now (this one and "Dealer", which was also quite good), and he should definitely be a name to look for in the near future.

"Gold" does have a lot of similarities to Kelly Reichardt's western-drama, "Meek's Cutoff", but with somewhat more action and excitement, all things considered. So even though both films are very similar, I have a huge preference to this movie, as the characters are also much more likable and well-developed.

So go see this film, if you want a realistic story about people trying to make their way through rough territory, both physically and mentally. See it if you love westerns, and/or if you just like good movies, that might leave a lasting impact on you forever.

Well, it shore is pretty. Little reason to watch this implausible movie, unless, like me, you're a fan of Nina Hoss and you like to watch beautiful scenery.

The trip itself is plausible enough. Plenty of fools made their way to Alaska for this second gold rush. There is even another movie (a better movie) about a similar subject called 'The Far Country' with Jimmy Stewart. But what happens along the way, and the way it is plotted and executed is absurd and comical.

Woe if you were a horse in this movie. Or one of the actors forced to speak the stiff dialog. The two main characters, Nina Hoss as Emily and Marco Mandic as Bohmer are believable enough, but tripped up by a silly plot. It's always difficult to make a movie about a long arduous trip without it seeming artificially episodic and here, the director and screenwriter, have failed.

At the time when it was released - right in the middle of August - both in Germany and in France, Thomas Arslan's seventh film, 'Gold', appeared as the ugly duckling puddling clumsily around the pond of Summer movies. No cheap thrills, no big gags, no sultry scenes in this German UFO. Nothing about it to draw huge audiences. To begin with, it is a western, once a popular genre but today the ghost of what it used to be, at least in terms of box office (with the notable recent exception of 'Django Unchained'). Even worse, once again as far as box office is concerned, it is spoken in... Goethe's language! Okay, laugh you cynical money grabbers while it is still time! As for me, I would not be so surprised if this unusual effort should become a classic in the years to come. Agreed, associating the terms "German" and "western" looks incongruous at first sight but let's not forget there HAVE BEEN German "cowboy movies" before, mainly in the 1960's. Of course at the time they were generally nothing but undemanding adventure films meant for the young public, most of the time shot in Yugoslavia and aspiring to nothing higher than "to entertain". Whereas in the present case the ambition is different and while the end credits roll the viewer is now assured that the words "German" and western" can go together quite well. For 'Gold' is a little gem of a western movie, which is made apparent as of the first minutes through the feeling of authenticity it generates. For one thing, Arslan's rough and uncompromising work is shot entirely on location: all the places shown or mentioned (Baskerville, Clinton, Goldbridge as well as the wastelands of British Columbia) are the real ones. Moreover, the writer-director has worked from actual documents of the time (the Yukon gold rush of 1898), among which photographs, newspaper articles and pioneers' diaries. All that is shown is therefore realistic, not to say hyper realistic, from the horse tack to the weapons to the costumes to the train. Such a serious approach is commendable and would suffice to make 'Gold' a good film but there is even more to it than the true-to-life account of the journey of a group of German gold diggers, namely an allegoric dimension. Indeed, Beyond the facts reported lies a fable about the futility of man's efforts. Driven by the lust to get rich quick, the seven characters (with the one exception of the determined female hero... but for how long?) ride and suffer only to give up or die in the end. A sense of utter absurdity is thus gradually built, reinforced by the structure of the movie (almost all the protagonists disappear one by one in the manner of an Agatha Christie whodunit). I am pretty sure John Huston would have liked 'Gold' even if its tone is yet more pessimistic than his (for Huston, the final goal is absurd, only the adventure is worth living whereas for Arslan, the whole thing is purposeless). Well made, well interpreted by competent German actors (among whom Nina Hoss as the dark, untamed Emily Meyer), 'Gold' is an excellent surprise. Not totally flawless (a faster pace would not have gone amiss), it is nevertheless an outstanding achievement in its category. And quite an unexpected one at that!