A Modern Western Turned B-Action

*here be minor spoilers*

When I first saw the trailer of Red Hill a while back it got me interested in the movie. Now, when I finally got to watch it, I did not have any particular expectations (high or low).

I intially really liked Red Hill, it starts out as a low-key drama and it feels like a modern western. The excellent setting (the small town, the rural areas surrounding it) to the very fine cinematography (visually similar to Unforgiven at times) really shines throughout the movie. I also enjoyed the score, which fit the themes well; the only exception being a couple of misplaced rock songs.

The main character, Shane Cooper, as well as the other policemen and local residences fit well into the setting. Jimmy Conway, the escaped convict, is however an entirely other matter.

I remember what was the moment of suspension of disbelief (a point in a movie which breaks the logical structure, characters, or whatnot, and is irreversible) for me; Shane is waiting in his car at a road, and Jimmy shows up concealed in an elderly couples car. Shane sees that the elderly couple are scared of something, and then we clearly see that Jimmy has the gun pointed dead on Shane.

At this point there is some bad editing, where Shane then proceeds to point his gun at Jimmy. Jimmy has good time to gun Shane down, but he doesn't. Shane then puts down his weapon on the ground instead of protecting the elderly couple by taking a shot at Jimmy. Shane then stumbles off a cliff just before Jimmy can take a shot at him. This is an example of some of the poor writing in this movie. This whole scene is written because it will lead to some strange encounters between Jimmy and Shane later in the movie, which I shall not mention specifically.

At this point, the movie changes dramatically from being a modern western with drama elements, to being a B-action movie with modern western visuals.

Gone is also the rest of any logical construct in the plot. We know mostly follows the story from Jimmy's point of view (a "mute" lunatic who practially has no dialogue), which goes on a killing spree (there's a reason, which I shall not spoil) around town. From time to time we also follow Shane and the police/locals, who is roaming around town. A whole lot of unlogical scenes follows, where Jimmy displays all sorts of superpowers (I use the term loosely, but if you watch the movie you know what I mean), and all his armed foes are gunned down dime a dozen.

The big problem with Jimmy is that he moves as a robot, really slow like a turtle (really, how can his foes not beat him? another example of poor writing), and he does not say anthing. This in turn makes him into a dull, uninteresting cardboard character, which I did not care for at all. At the end he does manage to mutter a very short line of dialogue, but at that point I could only laugh and think of him as some sort of retard.

There are plenty of cheesy/unbelievable moments to be found in the later parts of the movie, involving a silly scene with Shane and his girlfriend, a panther, Jimmy noticing Shane's baby book and giving him a retarded look, and many more.

This is writer/director Patrick Hughes first feature film, and while I think his directing is great, I think his writing skills are abysmal. The movie could have benefited tremendously if there was at least a co-writer present.
I think that Mr. Hughes should have heavily invested in going in one direction; either going for a modern western, as displayed in the start of the movie (would've been my preference), or an over-the-top B-action movie (worked well for Machete) - not both. Radically changing direction halfway through and relying on cheap twists just makes it look poor.


My evaluation: 4/10 stars for the setting, cinematography, and score.