Item: In a Valley of Violence
Rating: 8
Author: Simon Thompson

In a Valley of Violence is only the second time that Ti West has directed a non-horror movie. However, there is a dark and humorous heart beating at the center of this Blumhouse Productions film. From the revenge theme to the insanely effective Jeff Grace score to the gory visuals, this is an absolute treat.

The story isn’t a complex one. Ethan Hawke plays Paul, a mysterious drifter who’s heading for Mexico with his dog through the deserts of the Wild West. But things go wrong when he decides to take a shortcut through Denton, a former mining town on its knees and dubbed the titular Valley of Violence. Marshal Clyde Martin, played by John Travolta, runs the place with his band of violent goons which includes his son, Gilly, played by a moderately hammy James Ransone. Paul makes something of an impact on the place and then leaves, but that’s not the end of it for Gilly who decides to take matters into his own hands, attacking Paul at night, killing his dog and leaving the drifter for dead. That’s a big mistake that they live, for a little while, to regret.

Caught in the middle of the clash are Mary-Anne (the awesome Taissa Farmiga) and Ellen (Karen Gillan), two sisters who run the town's only hotel, who are both trying to find the good in Paul and Gilly… who Ellen happens to be engaged to. Of course, just to add something else to the mix, Ellen has eyes for Paul, as her needs must for her situation and her future.

John Travolta and James Ransone discuss matters in In a Valley of Violence.

In a Valley of Violence is one of West’s most accomplished pieces to date and, like his previous work and especially The House of the Devil, it is one of his most exciting and interesting pieces. Call them clichés, call them homages, call them genre traits or whatever, but rather than him using them poorly and the whole thing coming off textbook, he uses these potential hurdles and pitfalls extremely wisely and with great skill -- it’s an absolute joy to watch him weave them into the finished product in pretty much every area of the movie.

West, who also wrote the script, shot In a Valley of Violence on 35mm in 25 days in total and keeps the whole thing simple but smart. Hawke and Travolta as opposing forces are B-movie brilliance as two men with begrudging respect for each other but with weighty obligations to fulfill that neither of them wanted to take on. The play between the two has an oddly subtle intensity to it that’s an absolute joy. Although it’s a Western, there is something quirkily almost Shakespearian about it, especially when it comes to the brilliant Burn Gorman as Priest, a boozed-up reprobate of a character who crops up repeatedly as a coda whose mission to save others from sin starts at the bottom of a bottle.

As much blood as there is spilled, I bet it’s the death of Paul’s dog, Abbie, that audiences will probably recoil from the most. You can kill as many people as you want in a movie and I can handle it but when you take out the canine, especially one as formidable as this one, it’s not cool and I can’t watch. That cuts deep every time. The entirety of the 104-minute runtime is set to a crackling score, one of the best of the year, and is bookended by some perfect title sequences, which put the bow on this grisly gift of darkly comic drama. It’s not perfect though; while most of the cast nail it, sadly both Ransone and Gillan undersell themselves here. But In a Valley of Violence is still a damn good movie and it’s one that West deserves to get an audience for.

Verdict

While a Western through and through, the cast deftly navigates this grisly revenge thriller mottled with dark humor that still has a touch of West’s horror leanings. The dog and the sublime soundtrack make this a solidly satisfying offering and a twisted blast. Revenge hasn’t been this sweet in a long time.