Ti West's In A Valley of Violence could be described as a deconstruction of the Western genre, a film that plays in the space of desolate landscapes, rampant machoism, and loose morals, delivering a story that is both thrilling and darkly comedic. The story is centered around Paul, a mysterious drifter, who is in route to Mexico with his best friend and trusty sidekick, Abbie the dog. Stopping in the desolate town of Denton, a place which has been dubbed by locals as a "valley of violence", Paul is confronted by Gilly, the troublesome, headstrong son of the town's Sheriff. Wishing to avoid confrontation, Paul is drawn into fisticuffs with Gilly, though he leaves the town before the violence escalates. When a brutal act of violence is committed by Gilly and his cronies, it forces the hand of Paul, with the quiet, seemingly peaceful man being dragged back to the town, seeking vengeance for the wrongs committed against him. In A Valley of Violence is stripped down story of vengeance, a film that tells the story of a man who was so desperately trying to escape bloodshed and death only to find his hand forced by the environment which he inhabits. Ethan Hawke's Paul is a deserter of the American Calvary, a man who is attempting to flee the bloodshed and genocide committed by his hands against the Native American people. When violence is brought among him by these local misfits, Paul's inner-aggression is unleashed on the small town, as he is unable to let the actions of these men go unpunished. Viewed as a coward by the misfits of the town, who pick with the wrong man, Ti West's film playfully deconstructs the stupidity of testosterone-fueled machoism, capturing the absurdity of it all through humor and playful violence. In A Valley of Violence is as much a dark comedy as a brooding revenge thriller, a film which offers a heavy dose of self awareness about its story, where the main protagonist is the real danger to the characters of the story, with it becoming quite apparent early on that Gilly and his cronies are no match for the quiet, steely-gazed Paul. Introspection is not the film's strong suit, as I'd argue the film never fully develops the emotional weight such violence and death has on the psyche of a man, outside of one skillfully directed flashback sequence, but what the film lacks in nuance it makes up for in comedy and furor, with TI West delivering a dark comedy that is highly entertaining and intelligent in its deconstruction of masculinity. James Ransone, who is probably best known for his role as Ziggy on The Wire, delivers another memorable role as Gilly, a man whose thick maschoism slowly peels away, only to reveal a man who deep down is weak and pathetic, having a place at the table thanks to his father's role as sheriff of the town. Gilly is a character who himself has never experienced true bloodshed, a character whose machoism is simply a veil of his underlying insecurities, someone who quickly finds him outmatched by Paul, a man who swore to himself he would never kill again. Paul on the otherhand is a character who has truly experienced the psychological toll of violence, and the way he essentially manhandles Gilly and his fellow local cronies is both thrilling and comically executed, with John Travolta's role as the Sheriff, a man stuck in the middle due to the stupidity of his son, being another memorable aspect of the film. Managing to balance both its comedic, dramatic, and action elements quite well, Ti West's In A Valley of Violence playfully uses the western genre to deconstruct the shortcomings of faux-machoism, being a film that is sure to entertain from start to finish.
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June 2023
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