The Salvation (film)

Not to be confused with Salvation! (1987 film)

The Salvation
File:TheSalvation2014Poster.jpg Danish promotional poster
Directed by	Kristian Levring
Produced by	Sisse Graum Jørgensen
Written by	Anders Thomas Jensen Kristian Levring
Starring	Mads Mikkelsen Eva Green Eric Cantona Mikael Persbrandt Douglas Henshall Michael Raymond-James Jeffrey Dean Morgan Jonathan Pryce
Music by	Kasper Winding
Cinematography	Jens Schlosser
Edited by	Pernille Bech Christensen
Production company	Zentropa Entertainments 33 Forward Films Spier Films Danish Film Institute Nordisk Film & TV Fond Film i Väst
Distributed by	Nordisk Film United Kingdom: Warner Bros. United States: IFC Films
Release dates	17 May 2014 (2014-05-17) (Cannes) 22 May 2014 (2014-05-22) (Denmark)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	Denmark United Kingdom South Africa
Language	English
Budget	€10.5 million

The Salvation is a 2014 Danish western film directed by Kristian Levring and written by Anders Thomas Jensen and Levring. The film stars Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jonathan Pryce, Eric Cantona, Mikael Persbrandt, Douglas Henshall and Michael Raymond-James.

Plot

Jon and his brother Peter have participated in the Second Schleswig War. This war took place in 1864, and was a horrible experience and defeat for the Danish Realm and the brothers we are about to follow. By 1871 have they setteled somewhere between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. In the perhaps most criminal place during its worst era.

Jon and Peter await Jon’s wife and ten-year-old son who have just arrived in country. Peter stays behind while the family boards a stagecoach bound for their small residence. The stagecoach is also boarded by two recently released criminals. After a tense struggle, the two criminals throw Jon out of the moving coach, rape his wife, eventually killing her, the child and the stagecoach drivers.

Jon catches up to the coach and kills his family's murderers. Unbeknownst to him, one of them is the brother of Henry De La Rue, a notorious gang leader and land baron. In response, De La Rue kills three innocent citizens of Black Creek, the town that reports the deaths to him. He forces the townspeople to cooperate and find his brother's killer.

After burying his wife and son, Jon decides to leave town with Peter. After Jon sells his land to Keane, Black Creek's mayor and undertaker, he and Peter are captured by Sheriff Mallick. As Jon sits in his cell, Mallick tells him that his death will buy the town more time while he tries to alert higher authorities of De La Rue's actions. Meanwhile, it is revealed that De La Rue is working with the Standard Atlantic Oil company. He, with the help of mayor Keane, has been acquiring Black Creek and its surrounding land, which is close to an untapped oil reserve. De La Rue's now widowed sister-in-law Madelaine acts as his accountant and suffers sexual and physical abuse from him.

The next morning, Jon is escorted to De La Rue's base, an abandoned town. He is tied to a post and left in the sun. In Black Creek, Peter breaks out of prison and follows Jon. At night, Peter kills several of De La Rue's henchmen, cuts Jon free, and they ride off, pursued by De La Rue and his men. Realizing Jon is too weak to ride fast, Peter leads the gang away from him, getting killed in the process. Taking advantage of De La Rue's absence, Madelaine takes his cash and boards a train. However, the train is intercepted and she is captured. De La Rue tells his henchmen to kill Madelaine after they are done raping her.

Jon takes shelter in the house of another widowed settler and recovers from his wounds. Returning to town, he confronts and kills mayor Keane, who admits working with De La Rue. At the general store, he arms himself and reluctantly accepts the help of Voichek, the young storekeeper whose grandmother was killed by De La Rue.

Jon uses diversions and guerrilla tactics to kill De La Rue's henchmen one at a time. Voichek is killed and inadvertently sets fire to the hotel where Madelaine is being held, enabling her to escape. De La Rue finds and wounds Jon. Just as he is about to kill Jon, Madelaine shoots De La Rue twice, and Jon finishes him with a shot to the head.

Sheriff Mallick and his men arrive to thank Jon. When they try to arrest Madelaine, Jon orders them to leave and states that he will be taking her with him. In the final shot, the scene fast-forwards to reveal that the land is ultimately taken over by the oil company, with several tower pumping units working.

Cast

• Mads Mikkelsen as Jon, the Danish settler at the heart of the story
• Eva Green as Madelaine, Delarue's widowed sister-in-law
• Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Delarue, the gang leader and land baron
• Eric Cantona as The Corsican, Delarue's enforcer
• Mikael Persbrandt as Peter, Jon's brother
• Douglas Henshall as Sheriff Mallick
• Michael Raymond-James as Paul
• Jonathan Pryce as Mayor Keane
• Alex Arnold as Voichek
• Danish singer-songwriter, Nanna Øland Fabricius (Oh Land), as Marie, Jon's wife

Production

Principal photography began on 8 April 2013 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Salvation has a rating of 71% rating based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's all but impossible to add anything new or fresh to the traditional Western, but – thanks in no small part to Mads Mikkelson's performance – The Salvation comes close." On Metacritic the film has a score of 64 out of a 100 based on 19 critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews".

In The Observer, Jonathan Romney found the film: "tips its Stetson to John Ford and Sergio Leone with bold widescreen visuals – daytime shots in which even the sun looks sunbaked, prairie nightscapes resembling ink-soaked denim" but added "it never transcends reverent pastiche, down to the hackneyed sounds of Morricone-style guitars". Romney concluded, "Best reason to see The Salvation: its chief varmint, played with ornery glint and bristling whiskers by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has the sleepy-eyed malignity of vintage western heavy Jack Elam".

External links

• The Salvation at IMDb
• The Salvation at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Salvation at Metacritic