The Salvation stars Mads Mikkelsen as an immigrant to the worst place, The Wild West, at the worst time, 1871, who finally gets reunited with his wife and child only to get separated once again. The rest of the film is about revenge and survival. Once I decide that I like an actor, I will watch that actor in absolutely anything regardless of quality, and this movie is proof that Mikkelsen has my unconditional, unwavering respect and adoration because if I had any sense, I would never watch it.
The Salvation is not a good movie and is a complete waste of talent and resources. I hate when movies have characters do things that people wouldn’t do in real life. How are you living somewhere for seven years and never noticed that your neighborhood was shady until the movie started? You never heard of the villain or knew that he had control of the town until yesterday? No one noticed oil rigs being put up nearby? Also if anyone is talking to your wife who does not speak English, would not you say to anyone, “Sorry, she does not speak English,” especially to attempt to futilely defuse a situation where ignoring someone who seems dangerous could seem rude. Also considering that she made it this far with a kid without speaking the language, she would have picked up enough words to at least say in broken English, “I don’t speak the language. Where is the library?” Or do we just learn that last phrase exclusively in French class, not all languages? It does not matter.
The Salvation teases this theme of silenced women, but in the case of the wife, it felt unrealistic, and in the case of Eva Green’s mysterious character, underdeveloped. Green is a great actor, and she does her best to communicate her character’s story, but it is ultimately a thankless, punchline role rather than a person. If intentional, it was a well-intentioned, but poorly executed commentary on the vulnerability of women in a violent male dominated era. If unintentional, it was a way to have women present to become victims without giving them meaningful, substantial screentime—after all, if there were no women, who would get raped or threatened with rape? I am being unfair. There are two other women who are more vocal, less pivotal. One believes lies about the protagonist and snitches on him, or she does not believe and is more interested in protecting herself than right or wrong. Another woman helps him, but wisely gets out of there before things get worse. She is smarter than the hero before the movie starts.
The Salvation is not effective at conveying what it is trying to communicate about society. The town should be its own character. When it ends with the preacher/sheriff saying, “Only good souls now,” I know that he believes what he is saying, but the film never really needles the townspeople for their intentional or unintentional hypocrisy. The protagonist is supposed to be a part of this community, but he feels like a stranger to them as if they could possibly believe that he is a monster instead of what happened. The story could have kept it simple and made it about a circle of vengeance with the townspeople trapped in the middle of two blood thirsty men, one whom we root for whose harm to them is indirect and the other who is the villain and intentionally treats them as hostages. Instead it becomes a story about people either sincerely believing a huge lie, in which case they act properly by turning on the protagonist, or are just interested in protecting themselves.
If the latter, The Salvation could have been a great story because it did portend the maltreatment of immigrants and how in spite of adopting a new country, that choice is not always reciprocated. If the hero believed and succeeded in becoming a part of the community only for the community to turn on him when it mattered the most, this development would have been an emotional twist of the knife that would have elevated it from its exploitive film elements. The movie should have started earlier with seeing him prepare for his family to come, seeing him talk to people at the store about how excited he was that he was coming and even seeing how others were planning to welcome her. None of these characters feel like real people. The wife and son appear to be avenged. The village treats the hero who has settled in the area for seven years as if he is the stranger who just rode into the town and his character is a wild card, not a family man.
The Salvation is so eager to get to the idea of war damage, emotionally scarred men then see them bad ass the other that it loses sight of ordinary personal dynamics that would lead up to the sensational events depicted in the film. Unfortunately it still disappoints in this area. The storyline with the protagonist’s brother felt truncated, and considering that the film is only ninety-three minutes long, it would have helped to give him a scene or two. He gets really interesting in the middle of the film, but the film astonishes by showing that action off screen. Why? If filmmakers do not care about character development or how relationships work and fail, then care about action. Instead the movie teases us with a cool moment, then says, “NO more!” The first exciting scene occurs at night. I agree with the moon shining lovingly on Mads’ face just so, but a night scene does not enhance a moment of action so poorly lit.
I also do not think that The Salvation was helped when the casting director chose Jeffrey Dean Morgan to be the villain. I used to watch The Walking Dead, and I just kept thinking Negan, a role that he took after this movie. I was basically comparing him to himself, and thinking that this villain was less interesting. I am not saying that he was not good, but it became obvious that one character had a better writer than the other, because Morgan can only do so much with what he is given. Who wastes a horse? On principle? Really?
Only one character is well-developed and has a complete story within The Salvation. Jonathan Pryce plays the mayor, and I won’t give away much about his character, but at least he gets to go through an emotional journey that seemed plausible even if somewhat predictable, not contrived like our poor protagonist.
I saw The Salvation with only good will for the cast and the genre, but the movie is a complete disappointment. If you must see it because you are a fan of the cast, I understand because you are me, and they are terrific, but it is not worth it. They have done better work elsewhere, and this take on the Western feels like pale imitation instead of a fresh take on a well-known genre. Maybe it works better if you are familiar with the war that the protagonist survived, but I did not even know about the Second Schleswig War before this film.