IMAGE FROM MINERVINI'S THE DAMNED

ROBERTO MINERVINI: THE DAMNED (2024) - NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL

The documentarian tries his hand at an atmmospheric Civil war drama

The Italian has lived in the US for two decades chronicling marginal people. I've reviewed Stop the Pounding Heart (2013) and What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (2020) His Cannes release this year continues that process in his first period piece, set in the Civil WAr period when the U.S. Army sends a volunteer company to patrol the uncharted Western territories. See Peter Debruge's Varietyreview: he makes the film sound thin in story to put it mildly, but an "atmospheric and unscripted" depiction of young men in the war, mostly not in combat, and a "welcome extension" of the filmmaker's documentary work. Jordan Mintzer in his Hollywood Reporter review suggests that in its "aesthetic" here Minervini suggests Terence Malick’s The New World*and Alejandro Iñarritu’s The Revenant. Amusingly he suggests this is a low-keyed, laconic version of those movies. In particular this can seem an uninspired version of Malick's spiritual musings when the soldiers talk about whether or not they believe in anything.

When one absolutely doesn't believe, and you notice how much they say words like "OK," if not before, you realize these men are talking in their own modern vernacular. In this, the film is in and out of time, also like Terrence Malick.

They are Union soldiers on the periphery, sent to investigate western lands and seen in Montana. (One is from California and one from Virginia, so they come from afar.) A man brings his two young sons, or the sons rather chose to come with him. Some of them have no experience; one is sixteen and says his facial hair doesn't yet grow and he does not yet know what it is to be a man. His knowledge of riflery is shooting rabbits and a few squirrels.

The interest of this film is also its limitation for some, that it has virtually no plot (not unlike Minervini's documentary films). They are just there. But this is life, and especially military life. At one point there is a skirmish, with shots fired and men endangered. It's not clear what it really comes from. There is a sergeant, but nobody knows what they're doing. At one point the older of the two boys, who expresses religious convictions, says he no longer knows why he is there. "Becoming a hero" no longer seems a likelihood.

The boys and men, the latter longhaired and bearded, talk and these non-actors seem to be improvising on their own. It's pretty dilatory and sometimes empty or repetitious, but that again is the way people are.

I like plot and story as much as anyone. They are the lifeblood of fiction. But we know how much plot and story can run away with a film. We also know that in the hands of Samuel Beckett fiction can compel with minimal plot. Toward the end of the film four of the men go off on their own to scout for a pathway through the mountains in the snow, abandoning the rest of the men. An image of the starting point shows back at base camp many have died.

Horses play an important part in this film with their presence. At one point a dark mare is tethered on a wire line and pulling at it, complaining. Another example of aimlessness and the waiting that is an essential part of army life.

Admire the caps and the big blue capes, and drink in the helplessness of soldiery, Union Army style. This could be a good new direction for Minervini.

The Damne/I dannati, 89 mins., debuted in the 2024 Un Certain Regard section at Cannes in which it won the Best Director award. Also shown at Toronto and the NYFF, screened at the latter for this review. Metacritic rating: 63%.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.