Shotgun Stories (2007)

Shotgun Stories, Jeff Nichol's impressive directorial debut, is an intense portrayal of a host of social ills in the Southern US: poverty, lawlessness, broken homes and guns. Set in a town in Arkansas, the film picks up the story of three brothers, all young men, named Son, Kid and Boy. The father of this unfortunate trio abandoned them when they were at a young age and they grew up in the home of a bitter, vindictive mother. Of the three, Son is the least hopeless case in a truly dysfunctional trio, but his relationship with his girlfriend and pre-teenage son is decidedly rocky due to his gambling addiction. The shared rapport between the brothers is one of the few comforts in a bleak situation and it makes the subsequent tragedies all the more painful to watch.

The tragedy begins to unfold when the three brothers learn of the death of their father. When they turn up to the funeral they confront the four brothers that their father raised after he left his first family behind. The unpleasant encounter at the funeral stokes up the resentments on each side and initiates an escalating blood feud. The reprisals become increasingly violent as new weapons are used to settle the scores: words, fists, knives and, lastly, inexorably, guns. The violent clashes are filmed only fleetingly, rather than in voyeuristic close-up detail, but the tragic consequences are felt with sickening force on both sides of the family. It is telling that the police intervene only once during a fight and do so without leaving their car – vigilantism is left unchecked. A further tragedy in all of this is that the young child fathered by Son is witness to so much of the violence.

The landscape of the American South is beautifully observed in Shotgun Stories; the fecundity of the cotton fields and the warm glow of golden sun on the fields are contrasted with images of sewage flowing into rivers and lily pads decaying in muddy ponds. The bittersweet soundtrack complements the mixed imagery, using a simple palate of acoustic guitar and cello to considerable effect and playing again and again in your ears long after the credits roll. In the final scenes, the desperately sad and tragic events wind up in a curious ending, neither happy nor sad, but about as heartening a cinematic experience as I have had this year.

Fmovies: This was a great film. I expected slow and uninteresting. But I really loved it. Michael Shannon is a stud. This guy is going to be huge. Great performance. I'm shocked he didn't get Oscar nod consideration for this - but given the apparent lack of viewers, it's understandable I supposed. Nichols has a great script. He sticks to his desire to battle convention and really let the story unfold slowly. I was really impressed. I've read other comments on here about people becoming frustrated with the nod to Terrence Malick - and I completely understand that, and I suspect there will be several more nods to Malick thanks to the NC School of the Arts, but this was a great movie. I've been watching David Gordon Green's movies this week and now this one - and they both attended the same school and I suspect there was a lot of Malick-like influence from the professors.

This film is not an action movie like the title might imply, far from in in fact, it is slow moving yet relentless in it's growing tension. You feel that it will all reach a breaking point eventually and that's what kept me interested, along with very believable performance from the entire case. I don't want to get into any of the plot for fear of spoiling anything so I won't. I knew very little going in and I think that was for the best. I'm not trying to make it sound like this is a film full of big twists, because it's not, but what it is, is a film of moments, key moments that define the film, it's story and it's characters. These moments at times are surprises and other times inevitability. All said this story is well done, I do believe it could have been done better by a different cast and some rewrites, but that's not to say that this is a bad film at all, for what it was and what it had it all feels both good and right.

Shotgun Stories fmovies. Southern American culture is rich in storytelling tradition and part of that is the story of the blood feud. But Shotgun Stories is not about those ancient yokels, the Hatfields and the McCoys, but contemporary families in rural Arkansas.

One father, two wives. Two sets of sons. With first wife, father was an alcoholic ne'er to do well who abused his wife. The boys by this wife are poor. He cleaned up his act when he ran off with this second wife and became a farmer. The sons by this wife are middle class. The sets of sons hate each other.

The father dies. At his funeral, his first set of sons shows up, brazenly unkempt to spite the well-dressed second set of sons. The oldest makes a speech condemning the father for abandoning them, then spits on the casket. A fist fight breaks out. Vengeance is sworn.

And so the movie begins. And blood is shed.

The information above about family history does not emerge all at once. Bits are doled out as we get to know the Hayes family, the sons, their wives and girlfriends, friends (some, like Shampoo, disreputable) and their children. An often unmoving camera fixes on the details on these young men's lives, especially the older ones, Son, Kid and Boy (Yes, that's their names).

Just about everybody in the movie has known each other since childhood.

This is not a fast-paced movie, but the tension builds to almost unbearable levels as retribution leads to worse retribution. Interestingly, the most serious violence occurs off camera.

Eventually, a peacemaker emerges in a most unlikely (but maybe not) persona.

Shotgun Stories is the kind of movie film festival goers adore. Low budget. Unknown actors. Local color. Rich dialogue. Evocative cinematography.

If that's not your bag, stay away. But if it intrigues you, check this out.

"Shotgun Stories" is a moody melodrama of Southern rural life smartly observed. Jeff Nichols shoots his first feature film, trusting the scenery, the faces of his actors creating the atmosphere while he relies on small town, everyday life circumstances for character building. "Shotgun Stories" is a tragedy that unfolds beautifully as an intimate family drama. It serves as a passionate cry to end senseless violence, as well as a stark reminder that we possess the power to determine our own destinies.

Set against the backdrop of rural Arkansas, "Shotgun Stories" follows an escalating feud between two sets of half-brothers who differ in every way, except for one side of their parental heritage. We are first introduced to Son (Michael Shannon), Boy (Dougls Ligon), and Kid Hayes (Barlow Jacobs), born to a drunken father who didn't have the decency to give his offspring names, and rejected by a mother who was too bitter to care for them. The father decides to abandon his first family to find sobriety, God, and to begin a new life with another family. He fathers four more sons who were given the real names and the upbringing they deserved. The second Hayes family owns a cotton and soybean farm and is comfortably middle class. Son, in contrast, works at a fish hatchery and loses all his money trying to perfect a "system" he thinks can beat the local casino. Kid sleeps in a tent in Son's yard, and Boy lives in a van by the river. When their father dies the sets of brothers are brought together at his funeral, and their previously harbored hostilities erupt and further escalate.

Nichols makes a point not to show us the actual violence on screen. He often cuts away at the critical moments of a confrontation, and it is Nichols' approach to film making that strips away any glamour associated with the violence while being consistent with his message.

It should be noted that the pacing here is pretty slow – albeit realistically so. Thankfully the performances alone are sufficient to keep this counter-revenge tragedy on track. The performances are uniformly excellent with veteran character actor Michael Shannon as the film's emotional anchor. There is plenty to enjoy in "Shotgun Stories," just don't anticipate all the fireworks.

I must start by explaining the summary comment. I put this in the DVD at 11:30pm after watching the Superbowl and doing the required beer drinking that goes with that. I was pretty sure I would be re-watching "Shotgun Stories" in the morning as I planned to fall asleep. I was amazed that a very slow moving, no real action to speak of movie did such a great job of keeping my interest up. Kicked it out of the DVD at 1:00am, reminded myself to find out who the star was and see what else he had been in since I do not remember him from anything. Michael Shannon is a great friggin actor. I had no interest at all in "Revolutionary Road" but will see it now just to watch his Oscar nominated work.

"Shotgun Stories" is well worth the hour and a half. You may find yourselves waiting for something big to happen and then realize it did without the gun play or explosions.