Dust

It's easy to miss what DUST does with the Western's clichés. The movie is a kind of rumination in modern, international terms on THE WILD BUNCH, with some problems (e.g., Joseph Fiennes's Southern accent and arguably too many bloodbaths) and with some remarkable achievements. Chief among these is Manchevski's managing to keep several threads hanging because he pays us the compliment of assuming that we are paying attention, waiting for culmination, like the youngster who finally proves to be the movie's protagonist. We need very few details to make the important connections. The lad is a low-class thief in hock to dirty cops; he confronts an old broad far tougher than he is, who sees his resemblance to the Luke of her memory, a mercenary cowboy who found it easier to kill than love. As she begins a sharp-witted decline to death, she tells Luke's story. The story is full of traps. We think Luke fled to Macedonia because he loves the prostitute his sinister, found-again brother (Fiennes) has married. But Luke and his life are more complicated than that, as we gradually learn, circling through past, present, and the minds of several participants. Manchevski values images, cutting to the old lady's photos from the past, mixing times and spaces within the frame. He insists that we are watching the old lady's story, not even a pretense at reality. At last the youngster takes up the challenge and Luke redeems himself in a final confrontation whose truth is in fiction's need to resolve the central issue: here, that memory is a story which makes time come round to emphasize the dark ironies and pains from which we keep trying to protect ourselves.

If you look past some of the annoying factors (accents, gore, ect...) and let yourself get lured into the storyline of this this movie it is truly amazing. I rented this film thinking it would be just another filler of my time and I was blown away by the complexity of the story and quality of camera work. It was definitely a keeper in my book, I bought it immediately. I hope others will give this one a chance and also become enchanted in the storytelling aspect represented here. It is completely fulfilling to the end.

In modern New York, a thief (Adrian Lester) breaks into an old woman's apartment. She surprises him and holds him at gunpoint. She tells him the story about two brothers in the turn of the century. Elijah (Joseph Fiennes) and Luke (David Wenham) have a breakdown in relationship. Luke is drawn to the wild east in Macedonia where the Ottoman is battling a local revolt. He joins a group of bandits pursuing the revolt leader known as The Teacher for the lucrative reward. He gets taken prisoner by the Turks who is joined by his hated brother.

Filmmaker Milcho Manchevski has taken on too much for one movie. It's trying to do too much and ends up stepping on each other. It may work better as an old style violent spaghetti western. Even taken separately, the narrative flow is a bit disjointed. The modern part only adds the trans-generational story. The robbery part isn't that compelling. Without knowing either character, there is nothing to root for or against. It's often problematic to have a character tell the story of the movie. The reliability of the telling is suspect. It's also trying to have some surreal poetry about flying. It's doing too much and gets muddled. This is definitely ambitious and probably too ambitious for its own good.

When we first put Dust into the DVD player and the film started, I wondered if maybe the video-rental store put the wrong dvd in the case. As the story progressed, I was enamored by the brilliant execution of story within story within story. The world needs more films like this, with semi-unfamiliar faces who don't need to work so hard convincing us that they are indeed this character they portray. This is one of those films people will still be talking about in 25 years; a monumental masterpiece that broke the grounds in straightforward plot-telling!!

`Dust' is a movie filled with blood, guts, death, doom and despair. In fact, one would be hard pressed to think of a movie with a more depressing story line than this one. The body count is very high, and you can believe it when I say no one dies pretty in this movie. So, you don't want to watch it during dinner.

The basic plot is that of two cowboy brothers during the late 1900s; one of a good heart, and one with not such a good heart. However, there are a multitude of sub stories which finally come together in the end. It's just getting to the ultimate tie in at the end of the movie, without getting somewhat confused, that's hard. The story is told from the point of view of an old woman, living in the present day, in flashback form, as she describes events that took place at the turn of the last century. Every few minutes, the story line shifts from character to character and time to time. These constant jumps make the movie a bit hard to keep up with, and is the main flaw in the film.

Even though the movie is confusing, it does all come together in the end. And at the end, one feels a certain satisfaction when that little `aw, now I get it' light comes on; and that little light makes `Dust' almost worth watching.