Ain't Them Bodies Saints

It is not a secret that the genre of Westerns is one that has, for the most part, ridden off into the sunset with very little of note coming from Hollywood over the last few years.  There have been a few quality films such as Django Unchained and True Grit, but it is not the profitable genre and movie making machine that it once was.  One of the biggest flops of 2013 was a Disney attempt at a Western in Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which, even though it vastly underperformed its expectations (making a domestic total of $89 million), still managed to land in the top ten highest grossing Westerns before being adjusted for inflation.  That could give us a good sign of how dry the well is running.

For fans of the fading dynasty, there is indeed some hope as Ain’t Them Bodies Saints brings some much needed freshness in style and content.  I call it a Western, but some might argue that with the movie being set in the 1970s.  While that is the case, the costumes of the film are so well chosen that they are still able to give a feel of a true cowboy movie.  Many visual aspect of this tale bare resemblance to beloved gunslinger movies of old, and it was able to blend both the modern and the antiquated in a romantic fashion.

It is not just the styles and set pieces that harken back to Westerns of old, but there are many plot points from the genre that work themselves into Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.  It is drenched in Western folklore with outlaws, lawmen, posses, the retired gunman, and the saloon.  Around every corner is the essence of the Western, yet it is not completely overwhelmed by it.  It may seem hard to believe that the modern and the old could be blended to this degree, but director David Lowrry works some visual and thematic magic with this movie.

Perhaps I am seeing what is not actually there, and making up this tie-in to Western mythology on my own.  Even if I am wrong on that point (I can’t help but feel that I am right) the movie is still a treat.  It is much like a dance, which has all of its components moving to a rhythm, all coming together to tell a tale.  It has some wonderful cinematography in it, catching a lot of warm colours as well as spending time focusing on people in movement.  A number of scenes follow people walking from behind, looking past their backs towards their destination.  Only rarely do we see the front of people when they walk, at times when our attention needs to be focused on what they are walking away from.

The movements of this movie are enhanced by the dynamic acting performances of the cast, who bring real soul to the story of life, love, and crime.  Casey Affleck plays Bob, a criminal whose life catches up with him and envelops his love Ruth, who is played by Rooney Mara.  While Affleck is a bit of a baby face, he is able to assert himself in this film as a truly dangerous character, one who has much love but will also never hesitate to pull the trigger.  Mara’s portrayal of Ruth drives the film in its story of life moving forward, as she is a young mother who needs to now think about the best interests of her daughter yet still is bound to Bob and we get the sense that she will be forever loyal to him, making it completely unlikely that she will ever truly be able to progress fully.

There are a few shootouts in the film, but they are not the point of the story.  The story really is about Bob and Ruth, true love, and how that fits into their lives as they know them.  It is a movie that is able to take the romanticism of the Western and keep it alive with a much different style of tale, something which the best Westerns out there have been able to do.  I am not saying that it is on par with Unforgiven, but I am saying that it is worth a viewing for what it attempts to do.  It is both visually beautiful with a haunting, yet charming story, and it is most likely to be far from a waste of your time.

Rating – 3.5 out of 4 stars