Film: The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride
Year of production: 2010
UK Release date: 30th May 2011
Distributor: Revolver
Certificate: 15
Running time: 79 mins
Director: Tiller Russell
Starring: Dwight Yoakam, Lizzy Caplan, Jon Foster, Cote de Pablo, Jason Priestley
Genre: Action/Drama/Western
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Canada
Language: English
Review by: Sarah Hill
The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride is the debut feature film of documentary maker Tiller Russell in which he aims to put a contemporary twist on the western genre. The film, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2010, was filmed in Canada with a modest budget of approximately $8 million.
In Mexico in the 1910s, outlaw Ransom Pride (Scott Speedman) is hunted down and shot after he kills a priest. His lover, Juliette Flowers (Lizzie Caplan), embarks on a mission to bring his body back home to Texas with the help of Ransom’s brother, Champ (Jon Foster).
However, Ransom’s body is being held by a Mexican Bruja (Cote de Pablo), the sister of the man he killed, as recompense, so Juliette offers to buy back Ransom’s body and soul with the blood of his brother. But the Pride brothers’ father, Reverend Pride (Dwight Yoakam), is determined not to let this happen...
Occasionally, a low budget film will overcome its limitations and acquire ‘cult’ status. The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride is not one of those films. The film attempts to establish itself as an edgy and contemporary western through its fast-paced, True Blood-esque opening credits. However, like much of the film, whilst Tiller’s intentions for the opening credits are clear, they miss the mark somewhat and are disorientating rather than impressive.
If the opening titles demonstrate anything about what is to follow, it’s that Tiller has a compulsive fascination with video-style jump cuts. This style of editing would work well if it was used sparingly, but Tiller makes the unusual and frustrating decision to recap the main events of every scene in a quick-fire, condensed form immediately afterwards, making the term ‘flashback’ seem all too literal. Furthermore, these ‘flashbacks’ are sepia-tinted to such an extent that they take on a muddy brown aesthetic. This is coupled with the fact that the scenes which take place in the present look overly grey and grainy. The film subsequently flits between the two aesthetics and, in doing so, prevents any sense of realism. Also, the film’s obligatory shoot-out is edited so frantically that looks more like a self-contained music video as opposed to a scene from a film.
The film’s lack of credibility is compounded by its two-dimensional characters. Bruja the witch doctor seems to remain in a permanent state of seething, spitting anger throughout the film, and the more ‘quirky’ characters such as The Dwarf, whose appearance borrows very heavily from Johnny Depp in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films, are not interesting enough to enable them to become good cult characters.
Lizzie Caplan, as Juliette, gives what is probably the best performance in the film, although this is no doubt aided by the fact that the other performances are very weak. Caplan’s dark and fierce eyes adequately convey Juliette’s determination to bring Ransom home for burial and she is obviously a very strong woman. It is disappointing, therefore, that when given the chance to subvert convention by creating a strong female protagonist, in what is traditionally a very masculine genre, Juliette Flowers is frequently presented as little more than a sex object. She also makes some disappointingly obvious, yet uncharacteristic decisions throughout the film. For example, her decision to embark on a relationship with Ransom’s shy brother is a lazy plot device and arguably a decision that does not befit her character.
As well as being rather obviously plotted, the film’s dialogue is also very clunky and clichéd. When ordering his men to track down and kill Juliette, Reverend Pride says that he doesn’t care what they do to her, but just “make sure she ain’t breathing when you’ve finished.” Similarly, the closing line of the film, a quote from Ransom Pride himself, is equally as banal: “I was always a lover, despite the killings.”
It is clear that The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride wished to be thought of as a subversive western with cult status. However, whilst the film does contain impressive photography on the odd occasion - such as the fairly poetic shots of the sun shining over the plains - its infuriating over-reliance on flashy editing techniques, poor plot, uninspiring characters and clunky dialogue means that the film ruins any potential that it may have had. If the film teaches us anything, it’s that there is a fine line between a ‘cult’ film and a bad film, and, sadly, The Last Rites Of Ransom Pride belongs on the wrong side of that line. SH
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