Cannes 2013: Sundance Winning Ain't Them Bodies Saints Trailer

Love develops in all kinds of places and situations if its meant to be it will happen no matter the outcome. David Lowery's Ain't Them Bodies Saints an award winning hit at this years Sundance Film Festival (Grand Jury Prize winner) seems to be making similar noise at Cannes Film Festival and now we can admire the beauty of it's first trailer.

Set in the 1970's starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara as Bob Muldoon &Ruth Guthrie a young impoverished couple ho are caught up in a shootout with local police. A Policeman ends up wounded and Bob takes the blame who is then sent to jail leaving Ruth on her own to raise their soon to be daughter on her own. Four years own Bob escapes prison in a search for Ruth however during this time she has grown closer to Patrick Wheeler (Ben Foster) with an unexpected reunion destined to be an unhappy one.

Once again you get a feel of Terence Malick (Badlands era) especially in the cinematography, it's stylish, engrossing stuff which looks to intertwine between the intense manhunt and the drama between Bob, Ruth. David Lowery is been tipped for big things in film and Ain't Them Bodies Saints looks the near perfect introduction for the director who is hoping remake Pete's Dragon as well Graphic Novel movie adaptation of Torso. If going by the buzz this film is making Lowery should achieve those projects and become a big name in film for years to come.


Ain't them Bodies Saints boasts a fantastic support in the shape of Keith Carradine, Rami Malek and Nate Parker, the film has no confirmed UK&Irish release date but will be out out in USA 16th August.

Synopsis

Bob Muldoon (Casey Affleck) and Ruth Guthrie (Rooney Mara), an impassioned young outlaw couple on an extended crime spree, are finally apprehended by lawmen after a shootout in the Texas hills. Although Ruth wounds a local officer, Bob takes the blame. But four years later, Bob escapes from prison and sets out to find Ruth and their daughter, born during his incarceration. Set against the backdrop of 1970's Texas Hill Country, director David Lowery paints a poetic picture, evoking the mythology of westerns and saturating the dramatic space with an aching sense of loss. Featuring powerful performances by Affleck, Mara as well as Ben Foster and Keith Carradine, AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS is a story of love, motherhood, and searching for peace while faced with an unrelenting past.

Southern Comfort Blu-Ray Review

Southern Comfort (1981) is a film directed by Walter Hill, best known for The Warriors, The Driver and his long-lasting involvement in the Alien series. The film is very influenced by Deliverance (1972), which is not unsurprising since Hill has said numerous times that John Boorman’s earlier film Point Blank (1967) and especially its screenplay was a revelation for him—so obviously he had also seen Boorman’s Deliverance.

In a nutshell, the story is about patrol of the Louisiana Army National Guard who are out on training maneuvers in the swamps. They deeply upset the local Cajun population, so badly that eventually the swap-dwellers want to kill the Guardsmen, who then need to evade capture (in other words, not dissimilar to the rafters versus hillbillies plot in Deliverance). It stars Keith Carradine, Powers Booth and Fred Ward, and also features Peter Coyote. Southern Comfort is one of the last American films of that era to touch on the post-Vietnam conflict.  Co-screenwriter David Giler said he knew from the get-go that it would be seen as a metaphor for Vietnam. Giler has worked continuously with Hill, most notably on Alien.

It is a well-shot film, and also notable for its good score by Ry Cooder. Cooder has collaborated with Hill several times, and is also well-known for his score for Paris, Texas (1985). The cinematography of the Louisiana bayou is excellent, making you feel that you are actually there.

Southern Comfort is a solid man-against-nature and man-against-man thriller with obvious political undertones. When it came out it was not very successful, much like most of Walter Hill’s films with the obvious exception of his work on the Alien franchise, but over the years it has grown in stature. Many people consider it a superior film to Deliverance. Although I would not put it above Deliverance, it is well worth watching, especially for a very good early performance by Powers Boothe, who later starred in Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980: another little-seen film that deserved to be better known.) Hill remains an underrated director whose early films should be re-evaluated (The Driver, for example, was obviously a major inspiration for last year’s Drive). This is one of his very finest films, and is certainly better to watch in its new Blu-Ray format release from Second Sight Films, which includes a good-quality interview with Walter Hill.

Ian Schultz

★★★★☆

Rating:15
BD/DVD Release Date: 26th November 2012 (uk)
Directed By:Walter Hill
Cast:Keith Carradine, Powers Boothe, Fred Ward, Peter Coyote,
Buy Southern Comfort: (Limited Edition packaging) [Bluray] / DVD