The Claim (2000)

Such a frustrating disappointment

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

"Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"Michael Winterbottom directs what is in essence a Western version of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. It's Sierra Nevada, California, 1867 and the pioneer town of Kingdom Come is thriving under the strict but effective rule of Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan). Dillon came by way of a gold claim many years earlier by way of a trade, the barter? His wife and child. But now the past is about to catch up with him and Kingdom Come could well turn out to be his burning hell...Right off the bat it has to be said that The Claim is a difficult film to recommend, even to Western movie lovers. It's deliberately slow and purposely elegiac and ethereal. The literary aspects of the narrative positively sparkle, yet still this doesn't make the story any more vibrant, because Winterbottom and screenplay writer Frank Cottrell Boyce want to keep things in perspective. In a film that is awash with untold beauty, the snowy mountainous landscapes (Calgary standing in for California) stunningly photographed by Alwin H. Küchler, it's perpetually cold and bleak, the ice and snow a constant that marries up with characters who are deliberately hard to like.Technically this is one superior piece of work. Küchler and Winterbottom's panoramas are sublime, the town is strikingly designed by the art department, all wooded angles and smoking chimneys that are magnificently framed by the mountains, while the sound-mix thunders the ears and adds another dimension to the grubby realistic feel. Interior sequences are filmed in low lights, making the lamps spectral in sight, the costume design and the narrative strength of the town whorehouse (which is the fulcrum of proceedings) have a class about them that shines bright in the pantheon of modern era produced Westerns, while Michael Nyman's musical score is evocatively strong.The cast respond well to Winterbottom's requirements, Mullan, Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley, Milla Jovovich and Nastassja Kinski (how nice to see the latter twin euro beauties stripped of make up to show a natural era sexiness) all turn in charismatic and heartfelt performances. Narratively the film is driving towards Dillon's day of reckoning, his shoulders heavy with regret and his soul in desperate need of purging. In the interim we are privy to the lives and loves of the townsfolk, their foibles, faults and fancies, this while the town is alive with the arrival of the railroad company, who it is hoped by Dillon will make Kingdom Come prosper still further...Unfair comparisons have been drawn with Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Yes, this is similar in style and execution, but why not just see it as the perfect companion piece to Altman's movie? Because it is. How about we instead look at the finale? Which draws a favourably thematic link to the brilliant Boetticher/Scott Western, Ride Lonesome. When push comes to shove, and in honest terms, The Claim is a film that for sure may be hard to love, but it sure as heck fire is a film that is easy to admire. Western fans should see it because they "will" take something positive from the experience. 8/10

The Claim is a story fans of Dickens will recognise. No spoilers here, but the wind-up packs a classic one-two punch moral of the sort 19th century literature made famous. Given the period setting, it works very well. The Old Testament flavour (in a story set in a town literally named Kingdom Come) is also blatant and well-written. In a nutshell: you got Paint Your Wagon, minus the song and dance, plus meaningful commentary and careful attention to detail. As a historically-accurate, painstakingly-filmed New Western, this movie deserves to be shelved alongside such other outstanding titles as Jeremiah Johnson, Little Big Man, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If you liked those, see this. (PS: Some reviewers are mad because the story is slow, grey, bleak, and understated, with little "action". That's also a fair description of the Old West. When you're done watching The Claim, you've been there.)

What a total waste. This movie should have been good. It had great actors, great scenics, great cinematography, and no story. Perhaps the story was there, as it was an adaptation of a novel, but the director TOTALLY failed to tell whatever story there was to be had. The director did a great job of finding shots, and making the viewer feel as though he was experiencing a developing mining town in the 1800's, but there was just no cohesion of story telling. The pace of the movie was so slow, it was impossible to follow. One scene sets up, and you think as the viewer that you are going to being to get a feeling of what the movie is about, and then it just trails off and another scene begins. I thought it was especially stupid when the band of guys with guns confronts the band of rail road guys. Everybody pulls out their guns, the rail road guy shoots on of the town guys, and then all the town guys just turn around and walk away like nothing happened. The direction was so soft, so subdued, so poker-faced, that the movie never picks up any momentum and consequently fails in telling any real story. This is a failure of the director. This movie should be avoided. If you are looking for a good western about gold miners confronting greedy town folk, then you should watch PALE RIDER with Clint Eastwood. THE CLAIM was boring and pointless. The only reason I rated it a 2 instead of a 1 is because I thought it was shot well. One last point I want to make is the Wes Bently looked pretty much exactly the same in this as he did in American BEAUTY, sporting the same stupid snow cap. That kind of snow cap is a modern one, with an ELASTIC HEAD BAND, that did not exist in the 1800's. Again, a total failure on the part of the idiot that directed this disaster.

Beautifully photographed, but slow moving epic about a king of a gold rush township with demons that haunts him to the point of madness. Having seen the HBO series Deadwood before this movie I find some similarities, but Deadwood has the upper hand in my opinion because of the more intense gritty realism depicted. Ultimately this fails due to my inability to feel anything for the characters - there really is no one to root for, it is "just" a depiction of human misery, suffering, greed and need. Allthoug I can understand the endings epic martyrdom I personally find it immensely stupid - Really - why not make sure the poor daughter gets her inheritance instead of getting the corrupt train engineer...