The Salvation

Good fun shoot em up Danish American tale of Western justice and revenge. A proper cowboy yarn.

Well worth the watch.

this is probably one of the best western in years. It's a dark and harrowing film, a la "the proposition" or "unforgiven". This movie is not for the squeamish: innocent people are killed without a thought, and the film does a good job portraying the lawlessness and "anything goes" ethos of the times. Mads Mikkelsen is excellent as a hardworking taciturn Danish immigrant who's spent years trying to make a living in this land of opportunity. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes when he brings his family to the country, and then the rest of the film is basically about survival and revenge. At 1.5 hours, the pacing is good, and there are no unnecessary scenes or fat bogging down the story. Action scenes are realistic and very well done, and there's some pretty good cinematography throughout. All in all, a very well crafted and entertaining Western!

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.

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?

"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.