Eight Great Films at BAMcinemaFest’s Opening Weekend
In a Valley of Violence
Directed by Ti West
West’s latest targeted genre is the Western, which may well inspire groans from many: Hasn’t Quentin Tarantino already tread this territory recently with Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight? And some of West’s stylized repartee and drawn-out dialogue scenes in In a Valley of Violence can’t help but draw comparisons to Tarantino in ways that don’t always flatter the younger filmmaker. West’s film, however, has something The Hateful Eight crucially, almost defiantly lacked: a humane moral vision. The gunslinger-trying-to-suppress-his-inner-violent-tendencies archetype may not be new, but Ethan Hawke exudes reluctance better than even Clint Eastwood did in Unforgiven. And even many of the film’s ostensible villains are given humanizing nuances—most notably, the Marshal (John Travolta), who struggles to maintain a semblance of civility in his town even as his own hotheaded deputy son, Gilly (James Ransome), takes ruthless pains to destroy it. In a Valley of Violence may ultimately present an unflattering view of humanity, but West bracingly restores the compassion that even Tarantino himself seems to have let slip through his grasp in his own recent Westerns. Kenji Fujishima (Screens June 18, 7:30pm, followed by West Q&A; Focus World will release the film theatrically)