Movies set on barren, unforgiving terrains with gorgeous, sweeping landscapes serve as beautiful backdrops. When the same film can provide a gripping, dramatic story of survival, mystery, or tragedy set against such brutal terrain, it can often result in an unforgivable movie experience. Movies that come to the top of my mind include The Revenant, The Grey, Wind River, Legends of the Fall, and Fargo. Julian Higgins’s feature-length debut, God’s Country, isn’t on the same level as these movies, but I’ll argue that it could be in the same sentence. While a bit of a miss with audiences (50% on Rotten Tomatoes), it did strike an accord with critics (90%).
God’s Country also provided Thandiwe Newton (Crash, W.) her first opportunity to headline a movie. Unfortunately, the film grossed just $500,000 at the box office. As a result, it’s likely to gain little traction when it arrives on streaming services. That fault is not on Newton. She is fantastic as the film’s protagonist. However, the film’s failure at the box office might suggest that she might not receive another opportunity to try to carry a movie alone. The same won’t be said for Higgins. At 35, he has a handful of well-received short-length films. God’s Country is a feature-length version of his 2015 short Winter Light, the only shorts he did not pen.
God’s Country is a slow burn. It is methodically slow. We are with Sandra (Newton) for the duration of the film. We see what she sees and hears. We are privy to what she knows and what she doesn’t. The film takes place over seven days. While Biblical references exist, they don’t overwhelm the movie. In fact, to an untrained eye, they may not even be noticeable. I sensed one particular Biblical principle as the prevailing theme, though that may not be what others saw, nor do I know if this was what Higgins was going for.
In the film’s opening sequence, Sandra is sifting through the belongings of her recently deceased mother. Having left her previous home of New Orleans, Sandra now teaches lower-level public speaking courses at an unnamed university in Middle America. Sandra’s only contact with other humans is through her work. She retreats to her spacious home in an abandoned canyon, some 10-15 miles outside the closest town each night. The isolation allows Sandra to cope with her grief and find some semblance of peace in a world that appears as if it has previously provided much more heartache than comfort. Sandra’s only companion is her loyal dog.
The film’s tension arises around Sandra and a pair of local hunters, Nathan (Joris Jarsky – The Little Things, Survival of the Dead) and Samuel (Jefferson White – AMC’s Yellowstone). The pair parked their truck on Sandra’s property, leaving it to sit for hours as they hunted the canyon near her home. While some might argue that the mere presence of a vehicle 100 yards from her house is no big deal, it is to Sandra. There could be various reasons she doesn’t want them to be there, but none of those matter, as it is her property. When Sandra tells the two men she would prefer they not trespass on her land, she doesn’t quite receive a response, “We’re sorry, mam. It won’t happen again.” While Nathan offers some contriteness (the male character with, perhaps, the most moral compass), Samuel is more of a loose cannon. There aren’t necessarily threats of, “What are you going to do if we don’t?” as much as “Well, we’ll see what happens.” Will Sandra back down as they suspect? Or will Nathan and Samuel do what they must by law and respect her wishes? Sandra does file a report with Deputy Sheriff Wolf (Jeremy Bobb – Under the Silver Lake, The Kitchen), the single law enforcement officer in a 250+ mile jurisdiction.
Wolf cautions her by saying something to the essence: “In these parts, when two parties have a dispute, they tend to settle it themselves.” Wolf is a kind man who is the only formal law in the land. But when he advises Sandra to perhaps let them park their truck at the edge of her property, it isn’t the answer that Sandra is looking for. Without the support of law enforcement, Sandra feels forced to take matters into her own hands. This is where things escalate and where tensions begin to brew, not just between Sandra and the two hunters but really between Sandra and anyone who tries to stop her in her attempt to do what, in her mind, is the right thing. This is where her belief system and that of many of the other characters differ.
The town’s view of Sandra as an outsider is also a prevalent theme. To most, if not all, she’s nothing more than a New Orleans transplant who doesn’t know how to fit into the town’s culture. She’s also a woman in an environment dominated by men, in the most overt sense and in ways women aren’t ready to speak of. Sandra is also one of the few non-white faces. It’s hinted, if not outright inferred, that she was hired at the university not because of merit but because she was a minority woman and the school needed to fill a quota. In many ways, the town could never accept Sandra, regardless of what she does or doesn’t do.
God’s Country is a brilliant look at cultural clashes. Higgins takes a deep dive at how racial indifference in a community can often inevitably result in some people feeling inferior to others. Sandra is both a woman of color and someone who has migrated to Montana rather than being a native, like just about everyone else in the film. Nathan and Samuel disrupt this isolated, mountainous refuge that Sandra sought, operating on the false belief that their hunting on her property was okay because they were far enough away and hunting in the opposite direction of her home. While they were in the wrong, there wasn’t anything Sandra would be able to do that would convince them otherwise. The laws they obeyed existed long before Sandra’s arrival. Wolf says as much when he says that her particular matter is most often worked out among the parties involved rather than the law. That isn’t good enough for Sandra, who comes from an environment where laws govern more than do self-imposed sovereign rights. The clash is one not to be missed.
Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 7.5/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 8.5/10
Screenplay 8/10
Directing 8.5/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 9/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
86.5%
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