Review of The Horseman (2009) by Dutch V — 13 Mar 2011

This is one of those movies that I just happened upon, and in these cases there is usually one outcome: that the movie in question generally sucks. However, on rare occasions you find a good movie out of all the random selections, and that is what makes it all worthwhile. Now to get started this movie is certainly not for the faint of heart and is incredibly violent.

In fact I would argue that this may be the single most brutal movie I have ever seen. Now I am a firm believer that extreme violence including but not limited to torture does serve a purpose and can be effective. On the other hand though it can simply be violence for the sake of violence. Now you could with not much effort make the point that this is one of those situations. Where it is just violence for the purpose of revenge and to be shocking. However, I do not believe this to be the case at all.

My first point is that this movie greatly differs from torture porn flicks such as Saw and Hostel because those films just do it, to do it. No real reason. However this film may not be deep, but it does show a pretty accurate reflection of humanity and how dark it can be, yet at the same time the human condition allows for us to grow and work through it, or continue to stay in the darkness.

Now the question that I'm sure is on everyone's mind is why did the torture sequences not detract from the movie as in Saw or Hostel. The answer comes in two parts. The first is that it is just technically good. By that I mean it doesn't start off showing everything, and being hyper violent. It builds to that point to an incredibly brutal all be it effective climax. This is only improved upon, by how little it actually shows. Yes there are two shots during the climax that reveal more, but that makes sense. This movie makes you imagine what is happening rather than seeing it. This makes it all the more effective, because the imagination is much more powerful than anything that they could have shown. The second part of the answer is that it does serve a purpose. On the surface it is merely revenge, and for the most part this is a pretty superficial movie. However, I found that this movie used those incredibly brutal sequences to demonstrate how extreme emotions can translate into extreme violent tendencies.

This tangent aside, the movie is quite well done. Sure it isn't perfect, but it is well made. First it has an interesting story in that it isn't just a revenge flick (although most of it is), the acting is pretty good, this movie builds suspense very effectively and there are times where it is tough to gauge what exactly is going to happen, and finally the fight sequences are incredible. By this I don't mean that it is over the top, but rather very simple. It looks and feels like regular people fighting for their lives against each other. This makes it much more effective and hard hitting than if it would have been really fancy choreography and over the top violence.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. Yes it has its flaws, and yes the violence may be too much for some, I did find this movie to be very enjoyable and a worthwhile watch. Check it out.