In the Old West, a Union army deserter (a steady, squinting Ethan Hawke) bound for Mexico with his beloved pet dog travels through a former mining town lorded over by a genial-but-unscrupulous U.S. Marshal (John Travolta) and his volatile son (James Ransone). An unpleasant encounter leads to an act of cruelty and then a quest for vengeance. In a Valley of Violence is a modest Western by director, editor, and writer Ti West, known for such deliberately paced and retro horror films as The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers. The film is more rambunctious and accessible than West's usual, playing as a violent High Noon variation shot through with Tarantino-lite irony and gallows humor. It is an entertaining and stylish genre exercise (it sprints by, feeling far shorter than its roughly 105-minute length) with an exciting final shootout, but its highlights and virtues are frustrating in a way, too, because there is a sense West could have exploited them further. The film too often settles for 80 percent, for being sound and entertaining and decent, when it should push onward and more lavishly indulge the idiosyncrasy and intensity in its DNA. Consider John Travolta's avuncular, subtly theatrical performance as a jaded old bastard of a lawman only interested in maintaining the status quo and resting the one leg he has left; it is a well-crafted piece of acting, in turn threatening and subversively vulnerable, but it feels one scene or one monologue short of realizing its full potential.

B

In a Valley of Violence is ultimately a fun and good film. It starts off as a lot more though, with a very serious tone and straight forward approach it's very much a thriller western. The film has a great score and it's surrounded with good mixture of classic western and modern film style that gives it a pleasant vibe. Something that immediately annoyed my early on were the roles of both the female cast. Farmiga whom I didn't hear of before, can only have gotten the part because of her name I can imagine. It's the type of "scenery chewing" I did not enjoy and the role played by her on-screen sister was not much better. Ethan Hawke is perfect in the lead though, while Travolta, Ransone, the Priest and the rest of the gang have fitting roles as well. Around an hour in when the revenge plot starts the film tries to have fun with some parodic dialogue and sequence of events, that undercuts the better serious tone of the film. It hits the right mark sometimes, but I think if it was more tempered it would have had a better result. I enjoyed watching it a lot anyway, it's entertaining and well paced and I'd happily revisit again sometime.

B+

In a Valley of Violence

Yes! This is fantastic. So stylish. Ti West has crafted the perfect 60s Western for the revisionist age. He has stripped a Tarantino blueprint of its filler but let the bones remain. It fires on all cylinders. Perfect score, sandy dull colour palette, wide and artistic cinematography, just the right amount of dialogue, darkly humorous, cranked-up suspense, intense performances, the list goes on...I fucking love this film.

Ethan Hawke plays the grizzled man-with-a-past better than anybody; Travolta (fucking Travolta!) is this past-his-prime, cowardly Marshal; Taissa Farmiga is the gorgeous, justifiable, and modern Inn owner; James Ransone plays a sly, egotistical piece of shit trying to carve out a reputation under his let-bygones-be-bygones father; and Burn Gorman is great in a small role; both comical and eerie as a drunken Priest.

I love Westerns, and in recent years they have not disappointed (Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight, Slow West). I'm flabbergasted as to why this did not get either better distribution or more people loving it. West is not attempting to rewrite the book on how to make a Western. This should be regarded as his magnum opus. I'm sure Tarantino would love this film.

A+