This movie was absolutely awful. Easily one of the worst films ever made. It's ridiculously bad, nothing works and nothing relates to what really happened. Nothing makes sense. The acting is dreadful, there's no music and the script is as stiff as it gets. No-one acts like a human in this film, at any point. No-one speaks naturally. Every scene has two or three shots of Segundo (the mestizo) just staring. It's established very early in the film that Segundo is a great shot, like the best marksman in José Menéndez' group. This plays no role later in the film. There's a scene where a soldier gets sodomized by another soldier, just out of nowhere. This plays no role in the film either. A "supernatural" Selk'nam "demon" shows up out of nowhere; this has no place in this scenario (as those demons only appeared during the ceremony of the Hain) and it feels 100% like they just wanted to stick a Halahaches in there because it's a well-known bit of Selk'nam imagery. The American who is part of the three "surveyors", as you put it, is supposed to be renown for his talent to "smell" indians. The one time they encounter the Onas it's because they see smoke coming out from their tents like 25 yards away from them. And it's not even the American who sees it. This film had a lot of promise, but unfortunately every single scene fails to deliver. And yes, the cinematography is nice, but only because the Patagonia is genuinely stunning. You could go there with an iPhone and take random pictures and it would look like that. Dreadful film, avoid at all costs. It's only 97 minutes long, but watching it feels like 4 hours and the aftertaste might last for a lifetime.
Bro most of what you said there was part of what the film is depicting. His "Talent to smell indians" just shows how absurd the settlers were. Same thing goes for Segundo, who may be a great shooter but in no way was he going to happily shoot other natives which goes to show how absurd their plan was. The sodomy scene also goes to show how Alexander MacLannan comes out as the "Alpha male" of the team, the one who rapes first, the one who no one fucks with, the one who leads and who's strongest to then get raped by the colonel and all of his "credibility" is taken away. Also the fact the colonel wasn't aware of MacLannan's mission goes to show how bad the communication and organisation was. I also thought the film sets a certain tone between the lack of dialogue and how absurd the settlers are which made the film have a slightly funny tone. It felt intentional to me when seeing the film in cinema that this off-tone was intentional for me as a viewer to kind of laugh about how shitty these people were. As for the rest of what you said, there are a lot of things I wasn't aware of such as the Selk'nam Demon.
The only thing I disagree with in your comment is about the acting. I think the acting was the only thing that kept this movie watchable. It was lacking, and just so empty to me. Reminded of a Wes Anderson movie, but if he had made a movie with Tarantino.
This movie was absolutely awful. Easily one of the worst films ever made. It's ridiculously bad, nothing works and nothing relates to what really happened. Nothing makes sense. The acting is dreadful, there's no music and the script is as stiff as it gets. No-one acts like a human in this film, at any point. No-one speaks naturally. Every scene has two or three shots of Segundo (the mestizo) just staring. It's established very early in the film that Segundo is a great shot, like the best marksman in José Menéndez' group. This plays no role later in the film. There's a scene where a soldier gets sodomized by another soldier, just out of nowhere. This plays no role in the film either. A "supernatural" Selk'nam "demon" shows up out of nowhere; this has no place in this scenario (as those demons only appeared during the ceremony of the Hain) and it feels 100% like they just wanted to stick a Halahaches in there because it's a well-known bit of Selk'nam imagery. The American who is part of the three "surveyors", as you put it, is supposed to be renown for his talent to "smell" indians. The one time they encounter the Onas it's because they see smoke coming out from their tents like 25 yards away from them. And it's not even the American who sees it.
This film had a lot of promise, but unfortunately every single scene fails to deliver. And yes, the cinematography is nice, but only because the Patagonia is genuinely stunning. You could go there with an iPhone and take random pictures and it would look like that.
Dreadful film, avoid at all costs. It's only 97 minutes long, but watching it feels like 4 hours and the aftertaste might last for a lifetime.
Bro most of what you said there was part of what the film is depicting. His "Talent to smell indians" just shows how absurd the settlers were. Same thing goes for Segundo, who may be a great shooter but in no way was he going to happily shoot other natives which goes to show how absurd their plan was. The sodomy scene also goes to show how Alexander MacLannan comes out as the "Alpha male" of the team, the one who rapes first, the one who no one fucks with, the one who leads and who's strongest to then get raped by the colonel and all of his "credibility" is taken away. Also the fact the colonel wasn't aware of MacLannan's mission goes to show how bad the communication and organisation was.
I also thought the film sets a certain tone between the lack of dialogue and how absurd the settlers are which made the film have a slightly funny tone. It felt intentional to me when seeing the film in cinema that this off-tone was intentional for me as a viewer to kind of laugh about how shitty these people were.
As for the rest of what you said, there are a lot of things I wasn't aware of such as the Selk'nam Demon.
The only thing I disagree with in your comment is about the acting.
I think the acting was the only thing that kept this movie watchable.
It was lacking, and just so empty to me.
Reminded of a Wes Anderson movie, but if he had made a movie with Tarantino.