La salvación

"The Salvation" drew my curiosity for two things: the lead and the fact that it's a Danish western.

The atmosphere of the wild-west is really well done and has immersed me in the mid 1800's, and with a well-paced narrative and suspense of a typical revenge-story told effectively.

Mads Mikkelsen shines as the lead but the overall cast is good. Compliments to the screenwriter, too, for creating several characters that I would wish to see more of.

However, what stops me from giving "The Salvation" an 8 or more is the ending, the very final scene. For me, it feels out of place, fake- looking and preachy. It's funny how less than a minute of a scenery- footage can lessen the quality of the entire story.

If you like Open Range, 3:10 to Yuma, True Grit and Unforgiven, you should certainly check this movie out.

A straight up western starring Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Jeffery Dean Morgan, and even Eric Cantona. Danish production, shot in South Africa, it looked convincingly American west. It's very old school in its story, good guy vs bad guy, revenge, gun fights, the whole nine yards. And it's a pretty fine movie too.

Danish guy waits for his wife and son to arrive in America to start new lives, but bad guys are going to spoil their plan. There's no way he's going to let them bad guys go, after toiling for 7 years to start a new life only to see it destroyed as soon as his family arrives. And did I mention he fought wars in the Danish army before he moved to America? Oh yeah, this Dane know how to shoot straight too.

You really do get the feeling that this guy wants no trouble and just wants to get on with his life, but it's trouble that comes looking for him. A lot of new westerns tend to be "different" and avoid the straight up good vs bad revenge trope because it's been done to death during the genre's heyday. But I think it's a good time revisit that trope with today's new talent and technology. The story may be cliché, but everything else feels fresh. The best western I've watched in a long time.

By the Danish, and why not? Especially if it's done as well as this was/is. Mads Mikkelsen has proved himself worthy of leading roles even in (his not native tongue) English. But there is a bit of Danish thrown into the mix with this. But it's not the spoken language that will get your attention with this movie.

It's the framing, it's the "picture" language it speaks. This looks as down and dirty as Westerns come and it does a really good job throwing us into a situation Western fans know very well. So while the story itself is not new, we do get a very well made movie, that you should be able to enjoy a lot.

If you like traditional westerns you will enjoy this film.

These days you don't get to see American westerns very often, so is nice to see that genre is not dead thanks to productions like this one from Denmark or others like The Dark Valley (Das finstere Tal).

Mads Mikkelsen plays the main character with great professionalism, without excesses. Same thing with Eva Green, portraying a scarred mute woman that talks only with her eyes.

You have the good guy, the VERY bad guy, the town full of cowards, the tormented girl, the backstabbing character. All the things you expect to find in a good old western. If you add to that the good performances, my only advice is, see this movie.

Maybe it takes Danes to do a really good Western these days? American westerns seems to be all about softer things now, while this movie was tough and, in part, quite brutal. They even killed a kid in it, which sort of never happens in American movies.

Mads Mikkelsen delivers as always. His stone face is made for this sort of thing (Clint Eastwood, anyone?). Jeffrey Dean Morgan did a good job as the bad guy and Eva Green was really cool as a mute and strong woman.

The Swedish feminist newspapers hated this movie because it was about two strong men, the brothers. I for one can't see what they were complaining about, given Green's role. And in any case, even if Green wasn't there: Why can't a movie be about two strong men?