Shotgun Stories

United States

2007

92 Min

Color

2.35:1

English

Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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EXEC Todd Williams, Nick Thurlow, John Portnoy

PROD David Gordon Green, Lisa Muskat, Jeff Nichols

CAST Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canerday, Michael Abbott Jr., Travis Smith, Lynsee Provence, David Rhodes

MUSIC Ben Nichols, Lucero, Pyramid

Berlinale (Forum), London

Synopsis

Shotgun Stories tracks a feud that erupts between two sets of half brothers following the death of their father. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.

Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His brothers, Boy and Kid Hayes, don’t discuss it. His past, just like these scars, is never far behind him.

This stands true for the memory of his father, a man that never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who to this day blames her children for the life she’s been left with and the man she could not keep.

Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons. All of who received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to, a man successful in business, community and family. His only true failing being the sons he turned his back on.

At the beginning of the film, we find Son, Boy and Kid as grown men. The three brothers’ lives progress and their futures play out, but their past inevitably comes to claim them. Following a dispute at their father’s funeral, a feud begins to simmer between these sons and the new young men their father has raised. It is an anger that has always rested uncomfortably in the background of their lives. However now, it is a thing that will rise up to overtake them all. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.

http://www.shotgunstories.com/

Director

Jeff Nichols

Jeff Nichols, from Little Rock (Arkansas), stands out as one of the promising new deal in American cinema.

A complex hybridization between Malick and Spielberg (without ever limiting himself to these far-reaching elective filiations), he is right at the edge between American independent cinema and Hollywood industrial cinema. [Shotgun Stories] was striking due to its humble mastery of direction, its capacity to revisit America’s myths grasping at the same time both the territory and the landscape. One could see a “folk cinema”, in the tradition of the great American names, from John Ford to Terrence Malick in Badlands. One could also discover a brilliant actor, Michael Shannon, whose marmoreal grace evoked a “redneck” version of Christopher Walken. The same qualities can be found (including Michael Shannon) in Take Shelter; but there, the art of Americana is somehow “disturbed” by the codes of the genre movie, to be more specific those of the supernatural… read more

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Jason Callen

8Mar12

Barely gets a third star. Mostly for Michael Shannon's quietly powerful performance.

Jonathan Cribbs

6Apr12

Nuts.
Jason Callen

7Apr12

"Nuts," as in 'Nuts, I was hoping it would be better,' or "Nuts," as in 'Nuts to that.'

Llawrence

23May11

This kind of filmmaking reminds me alot of Malick's work. And it's not a good thing. Like Malick, Nichols never takes any risks in his film, half of the running time are sunsets and nice shots of rural arkansas. The characters are always seem sad and desperate and the very good Shannon always walks like a sad kid. I felt nothing for the characters. This film supposed to be clear-out and smart, but it's simply not.

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Jonathan Cribbs

6Apr12

Terrence Malick never takes risks? The movies themselves are the risk.

robaldo

25Feb11

Interesting concept about how one person's life can haunt the next generation, but it's never fully realised. The backstory of the father is possibly the most interesting thing about the narrative but because we don't delve into that the film falls a little flat.