The Slaughter Rule

Rating:
Summary: a few good elements but weak overall
Review: **1/2 Despite the novelty of its setting, "The Slaughter Rule" is a fairly conventional coming-of-age tale about a boy who grows into manhood by becoming a member of a ragtag six-man football team. Roy is a teenager trapped in a small Montana town whose life has not been going any too well of late. His father, with whom he had only the most casual of relationships, has been discovered dead on a railroad track, a possible suicide victim. His mother, embittered by their divorce, sleeps around with countless men and has no real inclination to provide her son with any but the most cursory form of maternal affection. On top of all this, Roy has just been rejected for the school's varsity football team because the coach finds him lacking in the kind of "anger" he feels a player needs to be a success on the gridiron. When Roy is asked by Gid, a somewhat eccentric older man in the town, to come join his six-man football team, the youth only reluctantly acquiesces (six-man football is a near rule-less poor relation to the real game, one ostensibly only played by farm boys). It is at this point that Roy's growth into manhood begins, since it turns out that the enigmatic Gid, who one assumes will be merely a father figure for the affection-starved youth, may be seeking more than just a father/son, athlete/coach relationship with the boy.

This latent-homosexual subtext, in fact, is just about the only element that separates "The Slaughter Rule" from countless other films in this genre. Most everything else about the film feels derivative and stale: the emotionally distant parents, the promiscuous, psychologically detached mother, the abusive stepdad, the sweet girl who wants to flee this hicksville town as fast and as far as a bus ticket can take her. Towards the end, especially, the filmmakers start to pile up the heartbreaks and tragedies, one on top of the other, almost to epic proportions. One wonders how so much can happen in so short a time to so small a group of people. In the almost two hour running time of the film, only the ambiguity of the Roy/Gid relationship arouses any real interest in the viewer.

Ryan Gosling is tremendously appealing as the troubled Roy, and David Morse (the father in "Contact") turns Gid into a nicely sympathetic figure. The starkness of the Montana landscape also provides an appropriate backdrop for the bleak melodrama that is playing itself out in the foreground. Apart from these few quality elements, however, there isn't a whole lot else to commend in "The Slaughter Rule."

Rating:
Summary: a few good elements but weak overall
Review: **1/2 Despite the novelty of its setting, "The Slaughter Rule" is a fairly conventional coming-of-age tale about a boy who grows into manhood by becoming a member of a ragtag six-man football team. Roy is a teenager trapped in a small Montana town whose life has not been going any too well of late. His father, with whom he had only the most casual of relationships, has been discovered dead on a railroad track, a possible suicide victim. His mother, embittered by their divorce, sleeps around with countless men and has no real inclination to provide her son with any but the most cursory form of maternal affection. On top of all this, Roy has just been rejected for the school's varsity football team because the coach finds him lacking in the kind of "anger" he feels a player needs to be a success on the gridiron. When Roy is asked by Gid, a somewhat eccentric older man in the town, to come join his six-man football team, the youth only reluctantly acquiesces (six-man football is a near rule-less poor relation to the real game, one ostensibly only played by farm boys). It is at this point that Roy's growth into manhood begins, since it turns out that the enigmatic Gid, who one assumes will be merely a father figure for the affection-starved youth, may be seeking more than just a father/son, athlete/coach relationship with the boy.

This latent-homosexual subtext, in fact, is just about the only element that separates "The Slaughter Rule" from countless other films in this genre. Most everything else about the film feels derivative and stale: the emotionally distant parents, the promiscuous, psychologically detached mother, the abusive stepdad, the sweet girl who wants to flee this hicksville town as fast and as far as a bus ticket can take her. Towards the end, especially, the filmmakers start to pile up the heartbreaks and tragedies, one on top of the other, almost to epic proportions. One wonders how so much can happen in so short a time to so small a group of people. In the almost two hour running time of the film, only the ambiguity of the Roy/Gid relationship arouses any real interest in the viewer.

Ryan Gosling is tremendously appealing as the troubled Roy, and David Morse (the father in "Contact") turns Gid into a nicely sympathetic figure. The starkness of the Montana landscape also provides an appropriate backdrop for the bleak melodrama that is playing itself out in the foreground. Apart from these few quality elements, however, there isn't a whole lot else to commend in "The Slaughter Rule."

Rating:
Summary: Watch this with someone you want to know REALLY well
Review: ..because it will make you know yourself better. "Slaughter Rule" is a noun; it stops the game short of a massacre. For anyone who knows Montana, the cinematography alone will call for the kleenex box. Thoughtfully cast with real-looking talent, the film explores intimacy as only hard times can. Adhering to their own mercy rule, the Smith brothers don't play sissy games with you. They tastefully portray Montana culture as art. If you qualify, they will show you why people choose to live there. It was refreshing to see a film with real people, real character development. This one's a must for anyone with a soul.

Rating:
Summary: A thought-provoking and iconoclastic thrill
Review: A curious film. I think I knew where it was going about a hundred times, and it surprised me each time by NOT being the guy-gets-girl film, or the Renegades-vs.-old-high-school-buddies film, or the coach-comes-back-to-take-the-coveted-trophy film, or a thousand other bad combinations of cliched, stale "Americana" moviemaking. In fact, by virtue of NOT being a boring trip following in the wake of a trend already being rehashed, it caught be off-guard and by surprise. For those who have seen it, you'll admit that the scene when Roy is in Gid's apartment before the game is about the farthest thing from what you thought the movie would be.

And this is not to say that the film's quiet strength lies in its simply being "different". Like "Tender Mercies" and "Ramblin' Rose" (come to think of it, Duvall could have done a good Gid), this movie sneaks up on you and slowly reveals itself in moments so powerfully alive the viewer is transfixed. Human misery and torment flow endlessly between the characters, echoing the title and theme: we each seem to need our own "slaughter rule" to end the misery in our lives, but the ones in the film can't find their own limits until long after they appear to have been crossed.

The acting is superb (especially Morse, who adds just enough sinister kindness to his role), and the cinematography brilliant. The music, composed by indie-folkster Jay Farrar, is flat-out beautiful. This film has obviously shocked a few here, and it will continue to do so, and therein lies its beauty. As a conversation piece and thought-provoking film, "Slaughter Rule" is this generation's Great Unheralded Masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: wasteland
Review: I bought the DVD because, sadly, I had missed the screenings and couldn't find it for rental anywhere. The Jay Farrar music and the Indians were the reasons for me seeing it. To be a little critical, it came off as Cohen-brothers lite; if you strung together all the slower sequences of Blood Simple and Fargo, you'd have this movie. I did like the fact that nothing followed convention, and the hopelessness of living was conveyed well. I could've done without the scene near the end where a Native drives up in warpaint, hair flowing, on a motorcycle - it's like things turned into a Sherman Alexie story all of the sudden.

Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: I only bought this film because I was impressed with Ryan Gosling in Murder By Numbers, and reviews of The Slaughter Rule were interesting. I ONLY kept watching it because I hoped it would get better. The movie did not live up to its hype. Ryan and Morse were good, but the film had no substance. Clea Duvall was dry and the relationship between her and Gosling seemed forced with no chemistry. The film could have stood to show more of Kelly Lynch and Ryan Gosling interacting as mother and son. People claimed the scenes between Gosling and Morse were full of sexual intensity. Well I didn't see any of that. Just one clumsy scene when they end up in a lame shouting/hugging session. Also the football scenes were way too long and predictable. It was obvious that the naughty sex scenes were thrown in to wake people up who had dozed off. Unfortunately most people still dozed. This movie isn't worth your time unless you're a HUGH Ryan Gosling fan. If not you'll be bored to tears.

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: I really enjoyed this movie. The acting was fantastic, the plot was interesting, and the characters were anything but boring. You go through the movie questioning (along with Roy) whether you can trust Gid. If you are interested in a good movie for the night, try this one out.

Rating:
Summary: Uneasy relationship between coach and quarterback
Review: Overall, I liked this film for many of the reasons already mentioned here. It's a high school sports movie that brings to mind the scores of films that have been made in this genre (e.g., "All the Right Moves"), and it tries mostly successfully to work against that genre's conventions. It also explores the male-bonding that underlies the relationship between coach and player by bringing together two males who are both outsiders, each needing the other to fulfill a sense of purpose in lives that are otherwise going nowhere.

Whether the coach's need for "friendship" crosses a boundary is an ambiguity that, from the point where you first see it, makes the film not an easy one to watch. And the filmmakers have created a tension there (sexual or otherwise) that their film doesn't totally resolve -- which is maybe appropriate in the hard-bitten world of the movie, where football is played under bleak winter skies on snow-swept, frozen fields. Endings are often difficult, and this one feels somewhat contrived and melodramatic, but the overall film remains strong, and its moody narrative sticks with you long afterward.

Morse, as the coach, has played this kind of character before and portrays well a man of both pride and weakness, who has experienced hurt and failure. Ryan Gosling is wonderfully natural and plays the young protagonist with what seems to be complete understanding. His affair with an "older" woman may seem a nod to convention, but the relationship is written and played for the truth in it -- that his immaturity makes him less than what she's hoping to find in a man. Equally memorable is the cinematography, capturing the Montana landscapes in wan winter light. The music is perfect.

I like films that are not quite predictable, show me a world I don't know, and play with conventions, expectations, and ambiguities. This one held my attention from beginning to end.

Rating:
Summary: Heartbreaking
Review: Ryan Gosling is a wonder!!! The scenes between Ryan and David Morse were so intense that I was moved to tears several times.Both gave heartbreakingly beautiful performances.

Sadly a much misunderstood movie...

Rating:
Summary: Great movie!
Review: See this movie! The performances of Ryan Gosling and particularly, David Morse (The Green Mile, Proof of Life, The Rock and TV's Hack) are amazing. I loved this film, and was really affected by it. The story is beautiful, sad, touching and heartbreaking. I fell in love with the characters, and couldn't stop thinking about them. The DVD's commentary (by directors Alex and Andrew Smith) is also outstanding, especially if you're interested in behind-the-scenes info. I can't recommend this highly enough!