BLACK WAY/ GO WITH ME

US, 2015, 90 minutes, Colour.
Anthony Hopkins, Julia Stiles, Alexander Ludwig, Ray Liotta, Hal Holbrook.
Directed by Daniel Alfredson.

The title, Blackway, refers to a character played by Ray Liotta, another one of his sinister and rather brutal characters.

The film was made in British Columbia, with the atmosphere of the forests, timber logging, the remote towns, the communities and the domination of powerful characters.

Anthony Hopkins, who produced the film, plays a retired timber worker who has lost his wife and his daughter. Julia Stiles is a young woman who grew up in the town, moved away to Seattle, has returned because of her mother’s illness and then death. Both of these characters have memories of Blackway and his overbearing attitudes as a policeman, his treatment of Anthony Hopkins after the death of his wife, his sexual advances and brutality towards Julia Stiles.

She appeals to the sheriff who sends her looking for some of the timber workmen, encountering an old storyteller played by Hal Holbrook, with Hopkins deciding to help her track down Blackway along with the young worker, Nate, played by Alexander Ludwig.

The film shows their drive, the search, the range of people they encounter, reluctance in giving information, some violent confrontations and, finally, meeting with Blackway – with expected results.

1. An action story forests, timber towns and communities?

2. The location photography in British Columbia the forests, the logging, the towns, homes, cafes, motels? Authentic feel? Musical score?

3. The title, clearer than the original title?

4. The atmospheric opening, the night, the homes, Lester and his toys, Lilian and her painting, Blackway’s intrusion, the death of the cat?

5. The Sheriff, Lilian’s complaint, his inaction, his advice to search out men at the lumber yard?

6. The old man, his reminiscences, the other old men listening, Lester present, Lilian and her complaint, trying to find contacts? The men not wanting to help? Lester and his intervention? Taking Nate?

7. Lester, his back story, the death of his wife, alienation of his daughter, her death? His working lumber? Making the windmill toys? The flashback to his encounter with Blackway, his rough manner as police, insensitivity about Lester’s daughter’s death? The friendship with Lester, Nate being rather slow, stammering, but supporting Lester?

8. Their drive, making enquiries, visiting the man whose daughter had been threatened by Blackway, some information? Going to the cafe, the cook out of prison, his support for Lester? The waitress at the diner? The hostile timber workers?

9. Going to the motel, Blackway present, Leicester overhearing the information? The dangers, the man with the gun? Nate and his fight, shooting, the fire? Lilian and her rescue of the young woman she was at school with, kept by Blackway?

10. Camping out, the hut, Lilian and her remembering the attempted assault by Blackway, his violence, sexual aggression, the witnesses? Her getting away? The sitting outside at the fire? Lester inside?

11. Blackway’s presence, the gun, the confrontation, Lilian’s movement? Lester, the gun, Nate and his fight? Lester shooting Blackway? The comment that the body would not be found in such a remote place?

12. People returning home, back to normal, Nate and Lilian talking, his girlfriend? Lester and the long look into the camera lens for the audience to think about him and what it happened?