4K/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Reviews, Featured, Home

Blu-ray Review: “The Timber” Needs A Good Polish

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

In the wild west, two brothers embark on a journey to collect a bounty in a desperate attempt to save their home: but what they find along the way is more than they bargained for.

The Western genre is a tricky one to tackle these days. Hearkening all the way back to Edwin S. Porter’s 1903 classic “The Great Train Robbery,” the Western has since witnessed a variety of incarnations. Master filmmakers like John Ford, Howard Hawks, John Huston, Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah have produced some of the best shoot-‘em-ups in cinematic history. It’s a hefty task, to compete with those guys.

In 1995, Jim Jarmusch took a radical approach with “Dead Man,” a minimalist, black-and-white spiritual odyssey that stripped the genre down to its core elements. In “Ravenous,” Antonia Bird took another subversive route and amped up the depravity, violence and sexism inherent to the genre. A darkly-comedic horror, “Ravenous” turned cowboys into flesh-craving cannibals. Kevin Costner brought gravitas to the more recent “Open Range,” and his experience, stemming from an extensive history of acting in Westerns (“Silverado,” “Dances With Wolves,” “Wyatt Earp”) was evident. Now we have “The Timber,” director Anthony O’Brien’s low-budget attempt to wholeheartedly embrace the genre, and the film’s earnestness almost outweighs its numerous flaws.

The story begins somewhere in the cold, cold, Wild, Wild West. Wyatt (James Ransone, so memorably hilarious in ”Sinister” but very somber here) brings a stash of money to the bank. He is told it’s not enough, and has one week to vacate his premises… unless he kills Jebediah (William Gaunt), a wanted man, and a mysterious-but-evidently-dangerous-and-borderline-mythical figure, who hides up in the ice-cold Timber, a mysterious-but-evidently-dangerous-and-borderline-mythical place.

So Wyatt relays the news to his brother Samuel (Josh Peck, so memorably subtle in “The Wackness”), who immediately gets all cocky and ready for battle. The brothers will do anything to protect their mother Maggie (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Samuel’s wife Lisa (Elisa Lasowski) and Samuel’s baby. And so they embark on a journey to find Jebediah (who, by the way – minor point – also happens to be their father), accompanied by a suspicious representative of the bank, Colonel Rupert Thomas (Mark Caven). The Colonel, of course, ends up having secrets (or, in this case, “traumas” would be more accurate) of his own. In the meantime, the local Sheriff (David Bailie) helps the poor ladies fend off against persistent bank reps.

Throughout their journey, the brothers lose their horses, encounter sadistic bandits and almost die of cold and starvation. When they finally get to the Timber, they coincidentally stumble upon a revolt, which saves them at a crucial point, and allows them to confront their evil father.

One of the film’s issues is its lack of empathy. The characters remain at arm’s length, and that’s not the actors’ fault: both Josh Peck and James Ransone are admirable leads. It’s that the cast is given so little to work with, the script riddled with clunky dialogue, delivered in even clunkier, uneven accents, ranging from Russian to English to Irish to a very Texan drawl.

timber

And when I say “clunky dialogue,” I mean borderline-crude and often hilarious. Here are a few tidbits: “He’s a murderer, Sammy.” Pause. “Well, who ain’t.” Or how about: “What’s Timber like, Colonel?” Long pause. “Eventful.” There are outbursts of emotion, here and there: “I don’t want to raise my son in this kind of world!” Extensively long pause. “It ain’t easy, this world…” Okay, finally, my favorite: “You must be Wyatt, the prodigal son!” Pause. “Prodigal or not, I’m here. And I’m looking for him. Where’s my father?”

O’Brien’s film is filled with formulaic touches, from the “man who has to go on a mission, leaving his child and wife behind (rather thoughtlessly, if you ask me)” staple of the genre, to the repeated shots of Samuel’s wife, holding the baby while longingly staring out the window. The sudden outbursts of action are badly choreographed and highly disorienting. One hilarious scene involves a baddie shooting a random guy for no apparent reason, then tilting his head back and laughing uproariously, like he just witnessed a mime exploding. Also, I’d like to point out how well-groomed Samuel’s stubble is, never quite reaching that beard stage, while his silky hair always lands smoothly on the side (I wish I could say the same about poor Samuel).

I’m also not sure about the film’s morals. What is it saying, exactly? That violence is the only way to combat violence? That one would – and should – go to extreme lengths to protect his family? Is it a story of family redemption through vengeance? Its overall theme is somewhat muddled – a big “no-no” in all the classic Westerns it tries so hard to emulate.

The director proves much more adept at the silent, lyrical sequences. There is a beautiful, slow-motion sequence of one of the horses hitting a snow wall, and the carriage breaking. The cinematography, courtesy of Phil Parmet (“The Devil’s Rejects”) is sporadically stunning – the cold is palpable, especially in a shot of the brothers walking through blinding snow. The narrative’s languid pauses work in achieving a mythical, contemplative atmosphere. And the ending, that cuts between Samuel’s confrontation with his father, and his wife fighting off evil bankers, is suitably suspenseful.

Anthony O’Brien has probably studied the classics: “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” “Red River,” “The Wild Bunch,” “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” “Unforgiven,” “No Country for Old Men,” ”Django Unchained”… His effort is evident. But I couldn’t help thinking of those films, even when marveling at “The Timber”’s uncompromising, gritty vibe. Those films’ budgets were sky-high, I get it. But in a genre like the Western, it’s all about sparse landscapes and leathery faces and deadly betrayals – and a mystique that’s haunted the genre since its origins. One can get away with making a beautiful Western on a low budget. O’Brien should aim for more ingenuity next time around. And get a better team of screenwriters.

Available now on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital HD

 
3D-Ocards-TheTimber (1)

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Alex Saveliev

Alex graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a BA in Film & Media Arts and studied journalism at the Northwestern University in Chicago. While there, he got acquainted with the late Roger Ebert, who supported and inspired Alex in his career as a screenwriter and film critic. Alex has produced, written and directed a short zombie film, “Parched,” which is being distributed internationally and he is developing a series for a TV network, and is in pre-production on a major motion picture.