Hunter 1

I dont know how many times i have seen this movie. Its so great. Its about a small society where everyone know each other and protect each other (in this case not a good thing). Its also about a will to do the right thing even if it will make you a loner and enemy to nearly everyone you know. And all this in a beautiful north of Sweden. This movie can be seen as a modern nordic Western movie.

And eventhough someone wouldnt like the movie you can always listen to the beautiful movietheme who sets the sence of melancholy right from the start.

THE HUNTERS is a crime thriller about a Swedish cop who returns to his home town to discover a hotbed of crime and deceit as he pursues a reindeer poaching gang. This stars WALLANDER actor Rolf Lassgard and it does feel very much like a Henning Mankell story, by which I mean it's a classic slice of Scandi-crime dripping with atmosphere and suspense.

The story that plays out is very nearly as icy as the chilly background in which the tale takes place. Certainly it's an exploration of the dark side of the human soul, with a typical police procedural in the first half giving way to something much more sinister and murderous in the second. Rolf Lassgard and Lennart Jahkel are excellent in the lead roles as a pair of brothers driven apart by living at opposite ends of the moral spectrum.

The only reason I'm not a massive fan of this genre is that I don't like the way that the criminals are never made to really pay for their crimes, due to the limitations of the justice system (which are all too apparent here). I prefer the sort of film where the protagonist goes outside of the law in order to bring the bad guys some true justice. Still, THE HUNTERS trades crowd-pleasing vengeance for chilly realism, offering no easy answers or a perfect ending; it's as dark and quietly devastating as it gets.

Sundvall has a good ear for dialogue, and uses his locations to great effect. One main problem with contemporary Swedish movies is the wooden dialogue, which is largely avoided here. The story holds together well in the beginning, but the naturalism and believability Sundvall builds up completely vanishes towards the end, which is unfortunate and ultimately makes this a rather average movie. The script has some irritating holes, like the subplot with Lassgårds love interest which is mysteriously left unresolved. The last act is also a indication of the current "Americanization" of Swedish cinema which is a rather sad phenomenom. We should make movies on our own terms and be wary of too many american influences, those estethics tend to become overblown, predictable and unrealistic when translated into Swedish.

The hunters is a steady and mostly enjoyable thriller. I liked some of the acting and I liked the sense of the setting as well. I thought Rolf Lassgard was solid as Erik and Jarmo Makinen was actually a standout in his villainous role. The story line on paper is good and I felt like it was heading in a direction that I really liked but as the film went on I ended up feeling a bit let down. I expected a darker and more brooding tone than was actually delivered. I felt that as it progressed parts of the storyline and acting started to delve into the unbelievable and as a result of this it detracted from the overall quality of the thriller. I feel like the tone wasn't serious enough to coincide with events in the film and at various stages in the film things started to veer towards the ridiculous. The villains were over exaggerated, which turned it from a credible murder story into a story line that escalated too quickly without real substance. Overall I felt a bit disappointed and underwhelmed.

Sundvall has made an intense movie about illegal hunting. It's loaded with tense and excitement. Actually, it's about people living in a desolated place, not wanting to play with the rules of the community. We haven't seen such an intense movie in Sweden for at least a decade.