Love, betrayal, greed, and tragedy all conspire to ruin the lives of a small winter town in Michael Winterbottom’s searing adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. New to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
The Film
The human cost of greatness is something that Michael Winterbottom’s The Claim excels at depicting. It’s not your typical Western dealing with vengeance or greed in the traditional sense. Lightly adapted from the Thomas Hardy novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Claim like another sideways western McCabe and Mrs. Miller is interested in the encroachment of big business on the individual. That’s an individual’s response and the cost of their fleeting power cost them.
Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) is the mayor of Kingdom Come a small gold rush town in the harsh mountains of California. More than Mayor Dillon is a King of a small fiefdom – in control of every transaction – illicit and non-illicit. The future has come to the small parish in the form of Donald Dalglish (Wes Bently) a surveyor for Central Pacific Railroad. As Dillon attempts to control the future of the town he built with his own hands, his past comes roaring back in the form of Ellena (Nastassja Kinski) and Hope (Sarah Polley) Burn. Will the latter doom the former?
The Claim is a slow-burn drama as cold and calculating as the snowcapped mountains the film’s characters must contend with. The script by Frank Cottrell Boyce takes the conventions of a Western tale of revenge and flips them on its ear. Rather than becoming a film about guns, bullets, and violence – The Claim is about the cost of your life’s decisions. The film unfolds with stark clarity and compassion under Winterbottom’s direction. There isn’t a character that’s judged or mishandled. There is a care and understanding of humanity here. Even when violence erupts there’s an instant recoil to it that gives one pause.
One would think that Daniel Dillon would be etched from the Daniel Plainview mold of an unrepentant bastard. This is not the case. In the hands of actor Peter Mullan, Dillon is a man lost at sea, adrift with his past and horrible decisions coming to haunt him. Mullan makes a meal out of the film. There isn’t a moment that Mullan makes the most out of. Dillon is a man rotted from the inside out who makes appearances that he still has bite and bark but is more performative than truly authoritative.
To give more away would be to ruin the rich and complex meal that Winterbottom and company have produced. Needless to say, if one loves McCabe and Mrs. Miller as much as this reviewer, you will find much to love in The Claim.
The Transfer
The transfer that was provided to Kino Lorber is a beautiful presentation of the filmic origins of the early 2000s European shooting style and European film stock that Winterbottom and the English Filmmaker surely used. The film stock looks to have a similar color density as Yvonne’s Perfume another Kino Lorber release. What I said about Yvonne’s Perfume applies here “Dense like a chocolate cake that makes the color spectrum be a bit darker and luminous.” There is nary a scratch or any sort of defect just a beautifully clean widescreen image.
The Extras
They include the following;
Audio Commentary by Film Critic Scout Tafoya
Theatrical Trailer
The all-new Audio Commentary by Film Critic Scout Tafoya begins with a quote from The Mayor of Casterbridge the novel by Thomas Hardy which this is based upon. Some of the details include the locations where the production filmed; his own personal history with the film – its inclusion of the film in his visual essay series The Unloved and more; a discussion of snowbound westerns – and how harsh the shooting conditions are including this film; Winterbottom’s troubles with getting financing for this and other production; professional history of director Winterbottom – discussing each of his major works and how they relate to his career and this film; a discussion of the work and professional history of composer Michael Nyman; and much more. Tafoya’s commentary is a well-researched informative track including quotes from interviews.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for The Claim (2:18); Jude (2:17); The Grey Fox (1:39); The Long Riders (2:28); Last of the Dogmen (2:52);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber continues to curate under-discovered gems like The Claim. Recommended.
Love, betrayal, greed, and tragedy all conspire to ruin the lives of a small winter town in Michael Winterbottom’s searing adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge. New to Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.
The Film
The human cost of greatness is something that Michael Winterbottom’s The Claim excels at depicting. It’s not your typical Western dealing with vengeance or greed in the traditional sense. Lightly adapted from the Thomas Hardy novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Claim like another sideways western McCabe and Mrs. Miller is interested in the encroachment of big business on the individual. That’s an individual’s response and the cost of their fleeting power cost them.
Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) is the mayor of Kingdom Come a small gold rush town in the harsh mountains of California. More than Mayor Dillon is a King of a small fiefdom – in control of every transaction – illicit and non-illicit. The future has come to the small parish in the form of Donald Dalglish (Wes Bently) a surveyor for Central Pacific Railroad. As Dillon attempts to control the future of the town he built with his own hands, his past comes roaring back in the form of Ellena (Nastassja Kinski) and Hope (Sarah Polley) Burn. Will the latter doom the former?
The Claim is a slow-burn drama as cold and calculating as the snowcapped mountains the film’s characters must contend with. The script by Frank Cottrell Boyce takes the conventions of a Western tale of revenge and flips them on its ear. Rather than becoming a film about guns, bullets, and violence – The Claim is about the cost of your life’s decisions. The film unfolds with stark clarity and compassion under Winterbottom’s direction. There isn’t a character that’s judged or mishandled. There is a care and understanding of humanity here. Even when violence erupts there’s an instant recoil to it that gives one pause.
One would think that Daniel Dillon would be etched from the Daniel Plainview mold of an unrepentant bastard. This is not the case. In the hands of actor Peter Mullan, Dillon is a man lost at sea, adrift with his past and horrible decisions coming to haunt him. Mullan makes a meal out of the film. There isn’t a moment that Mullan makes the most out of. Dillon is a man rotted from the inside out who makes appearances that he still has bite and bark but is more performative than truly authoritative.
To give more away would be to ruin the rich and complex meal that Winterbottom and company have produced. Needless to say, if one loves McCabe and Mrs. Miller as much as this reviewer, you will find much to love in The Claim.
The Transfer
The transfer that was provided to Kino Lorber is a beautiful presentation of the filmic origins of the early 2000s European shooting style and European film stock that Winterbottom and the English Filmmaker surely used. The film stock looks to have a similar color density as Yvonne’s Perfume another Kino Lorber release. What I said about Yvonne’s Perfume applies here “Dense like a chocolate cake that makes the color spectrum be a bit darker and luminous.” There is nary a scratch or any sort of defect just a beautifully clean widescreen image.
The Extras
They include the following;
The all-new Audio Commentary by Film Critic Scout Tafoya begins with a quote from The Mayor of Casterbridge the novel by Thomas Hardy which this is based upon. Some of the details include the locations where the production filmed; his own personal history with the film – its inclusion of the film in his visual essay series The Unloved and more; a discussion of snowbound westerns – and how harsh the shooting conditions are including this film; Winterbottom’s troubles with getting financing for this and other production; professional history of director Winterbottom – discussing each of his major works and how they relate to his career and this film; a discussion of the work and professional history of composer Michael Nyman; and much more. Tafoya’s commentary is a well-researched informative track including quotes from interviews.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for The Claim (2:18); Jude (2:17); The Grey Fox (1:39); The Long Riders (2:28); Last of the Dogmen (2:52);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber continues to curate under-discovered gems like The Claim. Recommended.
Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray edition of The Claim is out now.
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