Lo straniero della valle oscura - The Dark Valley

Great! The "Western" genre works surprisingly well in the alpine setting. The slow pace of the movie fits the gritty mood perfectly. What starts off like a "Whodunit?" quickly turns into a vendetta as the underlying plot is slowly revealed. Visually the film is expertly done and on par with any triple-A Hollywood movie. The acting is top notch by the whole cast. Some critics have complained that the movie takes itself too seriously and lacks humor. I think this is completely missing the point: a movie called "The Dark Valley" is clearly not angled like a dark comedy. Furthermore, nineteenth century winter life in an isolated mountain town is anything but fun, lending credibility to the concise dialogue and harshness of expression of the characters. The immersion is great, the story works well and thus the movie is definitely a must see in my opinion.

The more "user reviews" I read on IMDb over the years, the more I am convinced that people post things without A) actually paying attention to the movie or B) A lick of forethought or critical thinking skills. The Dark Valley is a genre film, a revenge western set in the Alps instead of the Rockies. For anyone complaining that the main characters' motivations aren't talked about, did you watch the beginning? The opening scene explains it all in a matter of seconds. I mean come on you lazy viewers!! He only pulled out his pocket watch a half a dozen times to get the point across.

The Dark Valley is brilliant BECAUSE it doesn't treat viewers like the idiots that (obviously from these reviews) most of them are... There is no "I'm here to do THIS because of THAT" scene... It literally is not necessary if you just watch the movie. Sam Riley is great as The Stranger that so many have played in Westerns before, the plot is straight forward, the acting top notch, and the camera work is hauntingly beautiful. What else do you need from a Netflix gem?

And really? You didn't like the movie because of the song at the beginning? Sounds like something my teenage daughter would say... But seriously, it's an Austrian movie so OF COURSE it's going to have bad music. :) Too lazy to pay attention to nuance, but not too lazy to make asinine generalizations on the Internet.

Who would've thought that two of the best movies released in 2014 were westerns? After seeing My Sweet Pepper Land I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this modern western, a genre that normally doesn't appeal to me that much. The Austrian movie Das finstere Tal (aka. The Dark Valley) again pushes the boundaries of the western genre. Not the American frontier, but the Austrian Alps at the end of the 19th century are its setting. Aesthetically this is one of the most beautiful movies of the year, especially because of its winter landscapes in the Alps and the almost desaturated blue-grey color palette. Storywise it seems like something Tarantino could've made, if he got off the coke and took some tranquilizers: a story of vengeance and raw characters but with a slow burn effect. At the same time this movie strikes an emotional nerve and provokes a melancholic atmosphere by constantly maintaining a dreary and ominous effect. With its use of an anachronistic soundtrack it never gets too heavy though. This should've been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Seriously.

Despite the flat character development that some critics have talked about (and I agree with, with the exception of the female lead), I found this compelling viewing. It has a fantastic opening, which pulled me in, but what I found fascinating was the relentless feeling that it was all taking place in a truly dark place; where normal happy life had been extinguished. The story itself is dark enough, but the effect is to a large part the result of the choices made in the cinematography, with the acting of some of the cast also helping. Finally the location adds too, to the sense of a closed, remote world, full of evil... Real human evil, not some horror type fantasy!

This is one hard revenge film. My gosh.

The characters are stolid. As the town's secret unravels, and they push it in your view very closely, the energy builds to the culmination.

I will say I really like this film and it is reminiscent of old Eastwood flicks or even newer ones like Django, which are really throwbacks too. Tarantino is a bit more garish but Prochaska keeps it pretty vivid too.

Honestly, the film appears a bit too edited down and my guess is with the language difference it'd been nice if there were more scenes to explain things in certain sections. I noted a lot of other reviews include speculation of why this or that occurred because the story wasn't quite clear in a couple of spots.

IF you like old westerns, you don't mind a bit of graphic violence, this film is probably for you.