JANE GOT A GUN
US, 2016, 98 minutes, Colour.
Natalie Portman, Joel Edgerton, Ewan Mc Gregor, Boyd Holbrook, Noah Emmerich.
Directed by Gavin O’ Connor.
Jane Got a Gun had great troubles in production, losing the director Lynne Ramsey, difficulties with the producers not giving her final cut… The film also lost some of its cast including Michael Fassbender.
However, the final film is quite effective, a 21st-century Western, memories of New Mexico in the 1870s, the post-Civil War period and the troubles from imprisonment during the war, absences, lack of communication. It is a film about settlers in the West as well as outlaw gangs and the rewards being offered for them.
The film has been described as a feminist Western with Natalie Portman as the central character, Jane, at first seen telling a bedtime story to her baby, then doing domestic chores but, with her husband coming back with bullets in him and her extracting them, starting to take a stand, getting her gun, going to town to buy ammunition, going to her past fiance, Dan Frost, played well by Joel Edgerton, in a kind of parallel to The Magnificent Seven as she prepares to defend her house.
The film has a number of flashbacks to the War and the post-war period, highlighting the role of her husband (played by Noah Emmerich), an outlaw who has saved her when the leader of the gang has set her up for prostitution and, allegedly, killed her daughter. The leader of the gang, John Bishop, is played by Ewan Mc Gregor with a black moustache and a black hat which means that most people may not recognise him before his name appears in the final credits.
The film has a sad story, for the Dan Frost character who went to war and was imprisoned for three years, sustained by the memory of Jane; and Jane’s sad story, thinking she had been abandoned by Dan, beginning a trek, forced into prostitution, lamenting her lost daughter, marrying the man who had saved her and having another child, then finding Dan returning and asking him for help during the attack on the homestead.
Joel Edgerton’s brother, Nash, writer, director, stuntman, appears as the fur trader tortured by John Bishop.
The film was directed by Gavin O’ Connor who has a wide range of genre films to his credit including the police drama, Power and Glory, the fight film Warrior and an excellent complex thriller, The Accountant.
1. A 21st-century Western? Perspectives on New Mexico and the West? The Civil War, the aftermath of the War? Settlers, exploitation, prostitution? Families? The brutality of outlaws, rewards on their heads?
2. The film seen as something of a feminist Western? The focus on Jane? Her role as wife and mother? Domestic? Yet very strong, taking up the gun, fighting for her husband, listing the help of Dan Frost, interactions with him? The confrontation with the Bishop Gang? The end, her collecting the reward? Forging a future?
3. The opening, Jane and her telling her daughter the fairy story, the upside-down tree, happy endings? Her baking, seeing her husband returning, wounded, removing the bullets from his back? His warning that the gang was coming? Her taking her daughter to friends? Her going to Dan, appealing for his help? His initial rejection – the audience later understanding what had happened? The confrontation, then shooting the attacker and saving Jane?
4. Jane, preparing for the siege, going to town, buying the ammunition and dynamite, her being accosted in the lane, the assailant’s death?
5. The preparation for the siege, Jane and Dan working together, his digging the trench, the dynamite and explosives? Preparing the house, the weapons?
6. Jane’s husband, the words, lying, the encounter with Dan? Later moving him to the basement? His shooting the attacker? His dying?
7. Dan, his anger? His relationship with Jane, the intention of marriage, his going to the war, Jane pregnant? Dan’s story, his imprisonment, for three years, sustained by his mental picture of Jane? His release, the end of the war, his discovering Jane with her husband and the newborn child? His not making himself known? The contrast with Jane’s version, his disappearance for three years, no letter or explanation? Her being taken by Bishop, intending to go on a trek, his using her for prostitution, his brother saying that the daughter had drowned? Jane, Howard and his finding Jane and shooting the clients, her being comforted by Howard, another child, trying to settle – but the threat from Bishop?
8. The flashbacks to Bishop, sinister, exploitation, his gang, Vic as his irresponsible brother? The trek, taking on Jane and her child, the exploitation, Jane’s escape?
9. The gang of outlaws, the notices, the price on their heads, Howard and his being part of the gang, his compassion for Jane, marrying her?
10. The initial attacker, the dialogue with Dan, the confrontation with Jane, the guns, his death?
11. The attack on the night, moving to the house, the setting off of the explosions, the men on fire? The guns and the shooting? Dan wounded? Jane wounded? Dan outside, taken by Bishop, brought inside, the confrontation, the speech and the explanations, the motivations? Jane and her move, Bishop’s death?
12. The bond between Jane and Dan? Bishop’s revelation that her child was still alive? Her going to recover both children, the reunion? Getting the money from the government for the rewards? And the wagon going west?
