Red Hill

Synopsis: Shane Cooper (Ryan Kwanten) is a city police officer about to start his first day in his new country posting. When Jimmy Conway (Tom E. Lewis) breaks out of prison, the whole town knows he’s coming back to Red Hill to get revenge on the people who arrested him. Cooper is about to begin a harrowing first day…

I’m really torn in how to rate (and whether to recommend) Red Hill, because honestly, I was disappointed by the end of it. It starts promisingly, with Ryan Kwanten performing a variation on his naïf-but-decent bloke routine, and it slowly builds up a good head of tension when what feels like the entire town mobilises once they get word that Jimmy has broken out of prison. Steve Bisley as Old Bill is appropriately grizzled and tough as the top cop calling the shots and there’s a palpable sense of fear and anticipation in the men as they all head out to their posts to try and catch Jimmy before he unleashes hell on the town.

But then it just falls apart. It remains beautifully shot, with the highlands of Victoria looking gorgeous and the Western vibe of the film captured appropriately. Jimmy himself is a terrifying vision and his calm and ruthless execution of his quarry is well handled to begin with. But then comes the moment I found myself kicked out of enjoying the film. Jimmy’s in a bar, there’s a guy with a shotgun hiding and Jimmy has his back to him. Rather than take his shot, the fool runs for his life and gets killed. You could argue that Jimmy’s body language says he knows the guy is there, but for a film that’s established a kill-or-be-killed sensibility, to not even try is lame. It’s a cheap kill and makes me think of bad 50s B-westerns rather than the more modern sensibility that seemed to be present up to that point. And then it does the same thing over and over again. People do stupid and obvious things that lead them to cheap and easy deaths. A sniper pauses dramatically instead of pulling the trigger and gets gunned down as a result. A trap which is obviously a trap isn’t picked up; the men just walk into it like idiots. It’s annoying and insulting to characters who allegedly have a bit more sense than this. Add to that a kinda interesting but also kinda pointless subplot about a panther loose in the mountains (if you’ve ever travelled around Hall's Gap you would have heard the stories) and it just falls in a heap.

But I’m still giving it three stars. Why? Because when it works it’s really bloody awesome. The story has its smart moments. Especially as it describes the desperation that inhabits small country towns as they struggle to survive in the modern age, and addresses ideas about racial justice and fairness to the aboriginal people. The cinematography is gorgeous and the reinterpretation of classic Western shots in a modern context is a joy to behold. And Tom E. Lewis and Ryan Kwanten are both really good.

Patrick Hughes is a talented director and he’s crafted an above-average modern Western in some ways. But enough of his choices fell flat  to keep me from really liking his film. I’m fifty-fifty on Red Hill, but will say that when it works, it really works.

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