Just recently I was decrying what I called the blandness of current Canadian culture which, it seems to me, is primarily driven by gentility and political correctness ("Trailer Park Boys" not withstanding). In particular, I was observing that it had been a long time since I'd seen a Canadian film with any balls that wasn't directed by David Cronenberg. For the record, I'm a huge fan of Guy Maddin as well, but his films are so unique and singular they seem to exist in an artistic universe entirely of his own making. What I'm really talking about is genre cinema, the more violent and edgy, the better. Well, I guess somebody heard me because here comes Jason Eisener's "Hobo With a Shotgun" to blow away the usual gutless complacency with a shot of pure exploitation.
The film originated as a contest winning mock trailer, shown with Canadian screenings of the Tarantino/Rodriguez double bill pastiche "Grindhouse". As one of the few who bothered to see "Grindhouse" on it's first release, I was lucky enough to catch the "Hobo..." trailer and it's well worth a look. I think I would have enjoyed it anyway but I was especially tickled to note that this contest winning trailer was shot in my hometown of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Not what you expect when you come to see the newest Tarantino offering. When I heard it was being developed as a feature, I was at best marginally interested, even after Rutger Hauer (of whom I am a huge fan) had been cast in the lead. Seemed kind of cool, but nothing to get too excited about.
Well, wrong was me. "Hobo with a Shotgun" is tasteless, blood-soaked, indefensibly ugly in every sense of the word and the most entertaining film I've seen so far on 2011. There seems little point in dwelling on the plot. Nameless hobo enters corrupt city run by an insane criminal called "The Drake" and his loathsome sons, sees enough, snaps and picks up a shotgun. The mayhem escalates quickly until a bizarre, and seemingly unstoppable pair of mercenary killers called "The Plague" are called in to take the hobo down. (I was particularly taken with "The Plague" as they could have stepped right out of a Mad Max film. I mean, that's just cool.)
So what we have here is an ultra-violent, revenge driven cartoon with equal parts 70's vigilante movie and 80's gore show. Think "Taxi Driver" meets "The Toxic Avenger" and you'd be on the right track. The visual style is consistently interesting and exciting, textured and grimy but bathed in saturated colour recalling Dario Argento's seminal Italian horror classic "Suspiria". I grew up in the cities where this movie was shot and I barely recognized them (except for a few obvious landmarks) so complete was the horrific little world they created. It's too early to say what kind of career director Jason Eisener will have but I can tell you, he's a talented young man who, whatever the pulpiness of his subject matter, already shows a sophisticated grasp of film technique. The violence and action is shot and edited with greater clarity than most of today's big budget Hollywood films. That sounds like hyperbole, but I assure you, it is not.
The cast is a solid collection of good local actors (including a cameo by Rob Wells of "Trailer Park Boys"), but needless to say, Rutger Hauer looms large over the proceedings. I've been a fan of his since "Nighthawks" (81), and "Blade Runner" is one of my favourite films so I'm always glad to see him and it's great to see back him in a lead role. The hobo isn't much of a character on paper but Hauer invests him with all the grizzled intensity at his command. Even dirty and ragged he remains a riveting screen presence. I never dreamed that the man who played Roy Batty and The Hitcher would ever be kicking ass and wasting scumbags on the streets of my home town. Gotta love the movies.
So, as you can see, I'm enthusiastic about the movie, really the last time I enjoyed a purely Canadian genre film this much was "Ginger Snaps" (2000). Admittedly "Hobo With a Shotgun" is not for everybody but, for someone like myself who has a love for all kinds of movies, including a deep affection for exploitation cinema, it's a great time. More than that though, this movie, despite it's extremity, is a step in the right direction for Canadian movies. I come down pretty hard on our film industry sometimes, but that doesn't mean there aren't Canadian films and filmmakers I love. Of course there are. What I can't stand is how anemic our film industry and culture is overall. Too much of our national film production depends on government funding, and, more often than not, that leads to safe, officially approved subject matter. This was not always the case. There is a history of tax credits being used for edgy subjects, most famously David Croneberg's feature debut "Shivers" (aka 'The Parasite Murders'). This nasty little horror gem, about the residents of an ultra-modern apartment block being driven to sexual madness by a venereal parasite, caused a lot of controversy when released, but it kick-started the career of the artist I consider our greatest filmmaker. We need some more of this and maybe "Hobo With a Shotgun" will lead the way. Frankly, I doubt it, but one can hope.
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