Following up his Best Actor win at Cannes for The Hunt, Mads Mikkelsen returned last year in a far different genre. The western The Salvation, directed by Kristian Levring, also stars Eric Cantona, Eva Green, Mikael Persbrandt and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and the U.S. trailer recently arrived. Selling a handsomely crafted period piece, we’re looking forward to it later this month, particularly with Mikkelsen leading.
We said in our review, “Pulpy, violent, exploitative and trashy, The Salvation harkens back to the spaghetti Western era before the genre became introspective with the likes of Unforgiven or No Country For Old Men. Jon (Mads Mikkelsen) arrived in the West with his brother several years ago, but when local outlaw Delarue (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) terrorizes him and his town he takes justice into his own hands. The Danish angle – frikadeller Western? liquorice Western? – is interesting initially, clearly setting Jon apart as an outsider, subversively suggesting Americans are unable to deal with their own corruption, but otherwise it adds little as the film settles into a straightforward revenge plot.”
Check out the trailer below.
The mighty Mads Mikkelsen unleashes a maelstrom of bloodshed in the Wild West in this white-knuckle tale of revenge. When he lays waste to the scoundrels who killed his wife and son, a Danish ex-soldier (Mikkelsen) incurs the wrath of a sadistic gang leader hell-bent on hunting him down. Exploding with eye-popping action, dazzlingly dramatic frontier landscapes, and a smoldering performance by Eva Green, The Salvation is a rip-roaring, blood-spattered saga of sin and redemption.
The Salvation opens on February 27th on VOD and in limited release.