Shotgun Stories
Jeff Nichols | US | 2007
92 min

The dreamy landscape of Shotgun Stories detracts nothing from the realism of this human drama about drifting parentage and the loss of family. The story of 2 sets of half brothers who lock horns and get into a fued following their fathers death is drained of any sappiness, but also of any direct violence, the threat of which permeates from the first scene when we see Son Hayes (the excellent, almost caged Michael Shannon) with a back full of shotgun scars. How he got these is the topic of much town gossip but also both a memento of a life lived, escaping from which becomes difficult for him and his siblings and of things yet to come. In scene after scene we see him with his two brothers, aptly named Boy and Kid, try to lead their lives normnally, but his act of utter disregard, spitting at his fathers grave in front of the family of his half-brothers, acts as a grim reminder that upholding their dignity and acting as men will come at a price.

The names of the 3 brothers could be both self-parody or mockery of the hicks town where they live (Arkansas) but the treatment and approach by director Jeff Nichols is beautiful. It tells us much about the negligent childhood they might have lead and their hatred for a man they never knew, who upon his death, is remembered with fond memories by others around them. In an often immitated method that has now become showy and synonymous with false artistry, Nichols paints the film with breathtaking scenery of the grassy fields and river beds where these men work. The film is produced by David Gordon Green – the influence of Terrence Malick could not be more obvious. Because the film has a constant aura of threat, sometimes almost unbearable, the humane ending may, on initial reflection, seem at tangents to the overall tone, but it is a very soulful and a brave approach.