The Damned – an improvisational meditation on masculinity and marginalization in the American West – takes a close look at the rarely explored fringes of the American Civil War. Transposing his naturalistic style to the fictional realm for the first time, documentary filmmaker Roberto Minervini took an open and highly collaborative approach to crafting this poetic wintertime war tale. Assembling a large cast of non-professional actors, including local members of the National Guard, Minervini developed the script in collaboration with a core group of participants. Shooting in sequence, the director gave the story space to develop in an organic fashion, much as in his documentary work.
Opening on a pack of wolves devouring a carcass in the snowy wilderness as howls grow louder in the distance, Minervini immediately establishes a bleak and sorrowful tone. The action, such as it is, focuses on a small group of Union soldiers on a mission to scout and protect the western borderlands in Montana. Far from the main fields of battle, these men are destined to be all but forgotten in the annals of history. Truthfully, the group seems so isolated from any vestige of civilization that they may as well be on another planet. Mostly strangers, they are nearly entirely cut off from the outside world, and have only each other to rely on.
The first act of the film consists of this ragtag group setting up camp in a forbiddingly windy plain. Largely made up of inexperienced volunteers rather than professional soldiers, they clumsily assemble tents and stumble through the rudiments of their mission. One soldier teaches another how to survey the mountains for invading scouts and troops. Another demonstrates the features of their army-issued weapons. As the film quietly unfolds, we can only hope these woefully unprepared men will never be tested in battle. For a good long while, it seems that may be so as we simply eavesdrop on their many meandering conversations, discovering their inner thoughts and fears.
Among the group is a pair of teenaged brothers. Neither of them has ever shot anything larger than a rabbit, and they retain their youthful idealism. Full of hope and desperately naïve, they proudly proclaim to the others that they are there to fight for God, family, and country. Others, more cynical, admit they are simply there for the paycheque. Despite one character’s warning of a possible attack to come, I started to feel that these quiet chats might make up the film in its entirety, like some kind of extended commentary on existential dread. Waiting for Godot as Western.
Instead, the slow pace of the film having lulled the audience (and perhaps the scouts themselves) into a false sense of security, gunfire unexpectedly breaks out throughout the camp. The shockingly dynamic battle sequence – the most impressive of the film – speaks volumes to the true characters of its protagonists, and to the wide spectrum of human nature. Following the battle, the battered unit splits up, much to its detriment. True to their name, the remaining members of the group are destined to succumb to an inevitable series of small tragedies leading to the film’s whispered conclusion.
On the surface, The Damned appears to share some common ground with last year’s The Settlers (Felipe Gálvez Haberle) – a revisionist Western set in Colonial Chile. Both bleak explorations of life past the borders of “civilization,” they share a similar visual style atypical of the Western genre. Rather than privileging the vast and impressive landscapes in which their stories take place, the film’s directors often employ a notably shallow depth of field – demonstrating a far greater interest in gazing inward into the souls of their characters than outward to the worlds that they inhabit. Minervini’s film, despite its overall air of hopelessness, undoubtedly takes a far kinder view of human nature. Interestingly, Minervini shies away from allowing his characters to make much specific political commentary about the war, giving the film a universal feeling. War is hell, he seems to be saying, no matter who is doing the warring, or when.
The Damned has its North American premiere as part of the Wavelengths programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
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