Here are some
brief impressions on the one film I saw on Tuesday, July 23rd:
While totally unoriginal from a dramatic standpoint, this sci-fi western scores big points for its impeccable art direction, likeable characters and vitriolic anti-corporate message. As a true heir to the genre films of early cinema, it takes a proletarian approach to its outrageous material, hence using real social inequities in a bid to create some really uplifting escapist entertainment. The narrative is straightforward, with lively characters roaming the lively decors with an unflinching sense of purpose, ruthlessly laying down the law on unsuspecting white collar criminals. The pace is brisk and the runtime is forgiving, making all the components of a successful b-series quickie blend together seamlessly to take us on an exciting ride through the imaginary worlds of old, washed over in the brightest waters of retro-futurism and given some well-needed contemporary political relevance. A great effort by some truly inspired artisans.
In the near future, the big corporations have assembled armies in order to fight each other, leaving only scorched earth and radioactive badlands in their wake. Once the dust settled and the world awakened to a desolate panorama of lack and need, a new moral authority was given birth in the Council of Nine, a congregation of judges united to track down and bring the corporate heads responsible for the apocalypse to trial. In trying to do so, the Council issues warrants for their arrest to be carried out by heavily-armed bounty killers, amongst which are Drifter and Mary Death, a deadly master/student duo with nearly infinite ressources. While the two scour the desert for prey, the film slowly reveals details about their past, all the while uncovering a plot by a surviving corporation to develop condos over the rubbles of the old world, hence reviving the ruthless brand of capitalism responsible for the world’s demise. From then on, it's up to Drifter and Mary to stop them, taking breaks only to assume cool poses and quip some assorted one-liners.
The impeccable art direction helps bring the retro-futuristc
world of Bounty Killer to life.
There’s a certain overdeterminacy to post-apocalyptic landscapes and Bounty Killer innovates very little in that regard. The reason behind the world’s decay (the deadly "Corporate Wars") might be slightly novel, but the entire background imagery, reminiscent of everything from Mad Max to Fallout, almost seems obligatory in its prefabricated contours. As for the issue of the lawless badland and the chaotic border town, it hails straight from the olden days of the American western, allowing for the classic merger of the sci-fi and western genres to seamlessly take root and to create a readily acceptable world of privation and the violent struggle for survival. The success of this merger relies on prefabricated narrative codes, but luckily, every visual detail here is also involved in crafting an engrossing diegesis. From the tribal makeup of the barbaric gypsy warriors to their intricately painted mock-stagecoaches, every artistic element contributes its fair share to the elaborate landscape, including the ruinous border towns with their colorful bounty collectors and indulgent bordellos, the radioactive wastelands (which Mary crosses on her motorcycle with a fashionable gaz mask over her fetching black hair), the alkali flats and the man-made oasis home to the bad guys’ desert skyscraper. It’s all a very elaborate, gorgeously recreated world of childish fantasy, animated with the same unbridled creativity and playful sense of wonder. It is immediately acceptable as such and a welcome throwback to those epic meta-narratives that made our childhood memories so vivid and exciting.
While they are little more than cool-looking archetypes,
the two leads have enough charisma to flesh out their characters
beyond the purely narrative needs of the screenplay. And although Mary’s costume,
customized accessories and snappy one-liners do a great deal to contribute to her mystique, Christian Pitre brings enough to the role to give her a
nice, round feel despite a very conventional background. Matthew Marsden is
even better as the level-headed Drifter, whose spot at the dramatic crux of the film he defends with conviction, providing a warm, reassuring presence in times of need and a certain repentant guilt as his past is slowly revealed. The sexual tension between him and Mary also peppers the narrative with extra heat, despite the fact that it culminates in a really chaste sex scene. As for the obligatory sidekick, he eventually manages to ward off his helplessness, and reap forgiveness for his annoying voice, by posing as the catalyst for Drifter and Mary's love as well as bridging the gap between the icy coolness of the heroes and
the starstruck passions of the average man. He also ends up contributing his fair share to the exciting action scenes, wrestling with a gypsy on a rigged, moving stagecoach and providing clips after clips of ammo for the bounty killers's blazing guns. That said, the wide array of weapons and vehicles being showcased here is enough to like the film on a purely fetishistic level, outlining what is essentially a righteous piece of
stress-relieving entertainment with no delusions of grandeur. Just the kind of
film to renew your love with genre cinema as a purveyor of honest,
spectator-oriented mayhem.
