Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: TWO DEATHS OF HENRY BAKER [Austin Film Festival 2020 - Virtual]

Oct 27

Initially perceived as a modern Western, "nside reel" plays in the notion of caricatures but also the idea of intention in lead characters. The character of the title is a bad man and yet his idea of power even in showing machismo to his son is misplaced since it simply creates more problem. There is an essence of double identity which works in a way but there is a lingering thought that doesn't explain how the twist truly works. Placing families against each other, especially sons who don't realize the impact of their actions and the build of what they are seeing is nicely played. But it is supposed to be exciting and suspenseful and, in many ways, it is shoddily done. The imagery including the dark and dingy bordello elements hark back to The Old West where good guys or the heroes were in many ways bad to the bone and just trying to survive on their own. Even the authorities here are brutal. What is interesting is flipping the texture of what one son in the piece wants and his differing perspective which is a new approach in the genre.He is shaped by the absence of his specific father but it is not made clear why the past 20 years happened in the way they did except for ego. The mother figure too seems completely undone by the actions at the beginning of the film yet it almost seems overwrought without exceptional reasoning. The antagonist of the piece is supposed to retain an element of darkness but he is painted as weak in a way that makes his approach to blackmail in a way less than believable. The violence especially in the "Two Deaths" spoken of in the title comes across as little more than mimicry used to explain a metaphor and then reflexively used as the crucial plot point. While visually the film does create some interesting homages inside the would-be saloon, it comes across a little ham-handed. While this may have worked decades ago as a hark back to the gangster pics of the 30s and of course westerns, modern audiences will nonetheless question the choices of the characters since they are mostly not drawn into a corner but simply fall prey to coincidences that aren't quite grounded. Ultimately "Henry Baker" as an overarching character is simply an idea. Like "Max" from "Cape Fear," he is a terror waiting around a corner but the sins of the father don't amplify in the right way upon the sons, so their path ends up feeling narrow.C-