In the land of the free, on the homeland of the brave Creating Sinners and the Righteous as the underside of a Western, J.T. Molner felt he was in new territory. Not on the one taken from official history, where brave pioneers pave the way for hardworking farmers, and courageous and God-fearing settlers fight back against bandits and wild natives. In this movie, everything seems to be the opposite. It is not without reason that the picture opens with the words of the extended night, when “the lions roar for prey and ask God for food for themselves” (Psalm 103:21). The American frontier, as the boundary between advancing civilization and dying savagery, between law day and night of lawlessness, has always been romanticized in film, literature, and history textbooks. But sometimes during epidemics or wars, civilization retreated, and savagery returned, covering the night with miserable horrors.
This, apparently, and decided to talk to the audience JT Molner. His God-fearing settler, the preacher Mr. Tildon, lives with his wife and two daughters of marriageable age at a small chapel a few miles from the town where consumption is rampant. In such conditions and come to Tildon in the night roaring lions in the form of notorious bandits, hiding from bounty hunters.
It seems that one of the main goals of the director was the desire to paint these lions and all the fallen that is associated with them. There is no action, struggle and pursuit, but the contrast is set to the maximum: each new episode of communication between “sinners” and “righteous” reveals new colors in the villains. Not only do they have nothing sacred, that they are terribly rude and ready for anything, but they are also shrewd enough to harm not the body of their victims, but their souls. The process of corruption acts as the main storyline, turning angels into sinners, and sinners into angels of death.
The plot of the film locomotive rushes to the place where the railway has not yet been laid, and vivid images do not allow you to be distracted around in the hope of seeing something encouraging. As if the night was always there and the villains just revealed to you this “bitter truth”. It is as if a new country were built in this way – with hypocritical prayers and money received for bloodied heads.
5 out of 10
Original