Shotgun Stories
written and directed by Jeff Nichols
starring Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canderday, Glenda Pannell, Michael Abbott Jr., Travis Smith, David Rhodes, Lynnsee Provence
A man dies leaving three sons by two wives. Tensions that have been building up for years between the two sets of brothers finally erupt after the old man’s funeral.
The three Hayes boys by the first woman either do not have or choose not to go by proper names. They are referred to as Son (Shannon), Kid (Jacobs) and Boy (Ligon). Son is the quiet, restrained leader who nevertheless is fully capable of action when the situation requires it. He seems to be burning with a terrible rage that he manages to keep under control. His work is trawling at a fish factory along with Kid. He has a wife named Annie (Pannell) but she’s been staying at her mother’s because whatever Son is doing isn’t right. Mostly it’s gambling because Son has himself a system that he plans on using at all the major casinos to make himself independently wealthy. Annie thinks he’s full of it and subsequently has left Son to bemoan her absence.
At his father’s funeral Son leaps out of his chair and demands to be allowed to say a few words about his dear old daddy. He proceeds to tell everyone his opinion of what a lousy rotten bastard his dad was and then he spits on his coffin. This doesn’t sit well with the three other sons, Mark (Smith), John (Rhodes) and Steven (Provence). They take the first step towards setting things right by butchering the well-loved dog owned by Boy Hayes. This leads to Kid smashing Mark in the head with a rod and either John of Stephen stabbing Kid. Both men die leaving huge gaping wounds in each family.
The feud idea is as old as cinema itself. It is handled relatively easily here and is properly maintained. The tension is felt throughout the film and a great and terrible vengeance could come down on the heads of any one of the brothers at any time. There is always a chance that it will erupt again, leaving even more dead and nobody any closer to getting to the bottom of the feud. It has been going on in words mostly for many years, probably ever since the mother was out of the picture either by death or disownment and married a new woman with three new boys to contend and compete with. Especially if you think about the psychological manipulation at play when you can’t even name your children properly and the other boys do have normal names. Add the fact that the abusive, conniving father who truly was rotten to these boys has suddenly transformed himself into a model father. There are countless reasons that resentment has been fostered here between these two sets of brothers. Each side sees the other side as weak and unviable.
We don’t get a whole lot about the boy hoods of these two groups. We also don’t find out a hell of a lot about the beginning of the feud when the father married a new woman and took on the responsibility of raising three other boys who the first lot must have viewed as intruders. Much of this feud does start with Son and co. because of all the factors mentioned but there is two sides to every battle and the other side is readily perpetuating the feud as their counterparts are.
This film capitalizes on its Midwest setting. Everything is wide open and the characters have a large area of space to maneuver themselves around. Each Hayes son in this film has the opportunity to spread out, to forget about the feud and to get back to their lives without anyone getting hurt. Unfortunately Kid loses his head and winds up getting himself killed for his brief burst of anger and frustration. It doesn’t seem like something Son would ever do; he’s more together and less likely to snap over the death of a dog. Indeed, Son is quite like Cleamon Hayes (Abbott Jr.), the eldest brother of the other clan. He’s not involved in the feud for the most part yet he is clearly capable of doing his part if it is required of him. Both he and Son want peace but aren’t sure what price they are willing to pay for it.
Shampoo (G. Alan Wilkins) is Kid’s friend who brings news regarding the other side’s actions and comments. Son and his brothers learn that the two younger Hayes boys were at the scene of the crime when Kid was murdered. This causes a direct action by Boy who ends up getting laid low by a large group of farm hands who nearly kill him with their assault. He responds by threatening to murder Cleamon in front of his children and so it goes.
It isn’t a particularly fresh film. It doesn’t do anything in an exciting, new way. But within its limits it’s an effective film that conveys what it intends to without too much wasted effort. The Hayes spawn in this film nearly all get caught up in an unnecessary feud that is severe enough to cost each side a brother. It seems ridiculous from the outside but one of the film’s merits is that it allows the viewer to get inside the heads of its characters just enough to gain an opportunity to figure out their motivation for this behavior. Still, it’s difficult to see much of anything due to the thick fog of confusion that hovers over every scene.
These are characters who are frustrated on different levels throughout the film. Their lives contain a certain core of misery that plagues them as they go about their daily existence bound by some strange oath to take care of those who threaten their autonomy or who simply piss them off in a particular way. They are ready to exert their grand physicality in a cause that resonates with them in a most specific way. Keeping the peace is not part of the program. They are merely waiting for an opportunity to strike hard, strike fast, while avoiding any repercussions in the purchase. Young Steven and John are young, trigger-happy, and exceedingly dangerous. They do not possess enough control on their own and must be reeled in by Cleamon lest they murder Boy who makes a truce gesture in a dramatic scene that at first doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It isn’t until one realizes the simplicity of his offer that it becomes more clear.
The performances in this film are all rather impressive. Michael Shannon plays Son with quiet ferocity that propels him forward throughout the film. Son is a character who seems a bit resigned to his fate and would rather avoid any direct confrontation with the other boys. Shannon provides him with a tendency to lose his bearings now and again and the resultant confusion is clearly played on Shannon’s face. Barlow Jacobs is solid in his role as Kid. He plays kid with an energy that occasionally threatens to override him. Jacobs captures the slight madness that causes Kid to take his fateful step into oblivion. Travis Smith conveys much of his characters drive and ambition. Mark is a bit hot-headed and Smith gets into his skin. He’s not a particularly deep character and there is little room for understanding. Still, the end result is an important character who is central to understanding the key argument.
Overall, this film is a satisfying investigation into the nature of conflict as it falls into the hands of those who are essentially unable to fully take responsibility for it. Actions in this film have fatal consequences that can never be washed off. Yet, there is no justice only more and more retribution until it threatens to get to a point of acute oblivion where there is but one left. To the film’s credit, it gives its characters dilemmas to work with toward the end that greatly affect the nature of the mini war.
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