Who is hiding behind the hoods worn by the attackers? Why such a rage to kill? What are the political interests of the belligerents involved? And how will Sara and her son manage to save their skins?
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The little-known Utah War
A little-known episode in American history, the Utah War is at the center of this six-episode mini-series, scripted by a certain Mark L. Smith, the same one who, in 2016, signed The Revenant for Alejandro González Iñárritu. The man therefore knows his subject and the director his since we owe Peter Berg successes like Very Bad Things or much closer to us, the series Painkiller. It was on the set of the latter that he met Taylor Kitsch to whom he offers, today, one of the most beautiful characters ofAt the dawn of America.
Because, in their headlong flight, Sara and her son will be able to count on the help of Isaac, a gunslinger initially reluctant to take on such heavy baggage. However, it is this lone wolf, dirty, bearded, but wildly attractive that we will become attached to over the course of the six episodes; with him that we will ride in the frozen forests and be moved by all the beauties and all the cruelties of the world.
Kevin Costner, the patriarch
-Faced with the gray and the cold, Peter Berg and his cinematographer, the Frenchman Jacques Jouffret, whose excellent work should be underlined, contrast the warm colors when the religious speeches of Brigham Young ignite in the middle of the desert where , literally, he preaches.
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And when soldiers and Indians kill each other with axes, rifles, pistols, arrows (and we forget some), the words of the Mormon fanaticize a growing crowd and urge them to use all means to finally seat, the power of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Two forms of violence which have nothing to envy of each other and which cruelly resonate with certain conflicts of the here and now.
In this modern western, designed not to have a sequel – and that would be desirable, as the ending is so superb – scenes of unbearable cruelty follow one another. Too much, undoubtedly, for sensitive souls (nothing is spared you, from the scalp to the brains blown out with six-shooters) and this is undoubtedly the main criticism that can be made of American Primeval (in its original title). Because, for the rest, we come away richer in historical lessons, in particular on the brutal way in which the Mormons, under the aegis of a half-mad leader (or visionary, it depends on the side you choose) , imposed their beliefs and their laws, at the price of blood (and some negotiations) with the American nation.
- At the dawn of America/American Primevalseries created by Eric Newman, written by Mark L. Smith, directed by Peter Berg With Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Preston Mota, Shawnee Pourier, Kim Coates… Netflix 6 x 50 minutes.
