The Claim (DVD)

Never a slave to convention, director Michael Winterbottom works with diverse subject matter here, as he combines Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge with tales of the 19th century American goldrush. The film's action takes place in a mountain town named Kingdom Come, owned by the prosperous Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan) who lays down the law with an iron fist, and chooses who may and may not enter his settlement. However, Mr Dillon's life is unexpectedly turned upside-down when railroad prospector Donald Dalglish (Wes Bentley) comes into town, bringing with him Dillon's dying wife (Natassja Kinski) and daughter (Polley) whom he had sold two ...  Read the complete review

vOn a short list with the wonderful "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (see my review under film title) and "Requiem for a Dream," "The Claim" is one of the year's most visually stylistic films. It's shot in color, but a large portion of the film's exterior images are opulent black and white renderings of a sooty, high Sierra Nevada mining town layered against a snow fallen backdrop. The composition is such compelling poetry, it seems all too certain that the story can't measure up; and by the final act, that construct comes to fulfillment. Based on Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbridge," the venue for ...  Read the complete review

'The Claim' is set in Kingdom Come, a battered town run with impunity by Dillon (Peter Mullan), an Irish gold prospector who made it big. Dillon is like a king in Kingdom Come until the arrival of a survey team from the Central Pacific Railroad, driving the trainline from the Pacific deep into the west, where they will meet the railroad being built from the Atlantic. Dillon wants the railroad to come through his town to cement its future, but other visitors are to determine its fate - a dying woman, Elena (Natassja Kinski) and her daughter Hope (Sarah Polley). As Hope befriends the survey leader (Wes Bentley) and Dillon throws over his mistress the brothel madam ...  Read the complete review

This excellent film is set in 1867 at the time of American prospectors hunting for gold in the harsh snowbound Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The story centres on the town of Kingdom Come which is controlled by the wealthy owner of the gold prospecting rights, Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan). The shots of the surrounding mountains are so spectacular and the excellent way this film has been made totally engulfs you in realising the hard lives the people of these times led in order to make their money from the gold mining. Some of the panoramic views on this wide screen production just take your breath away and for somebody like me who loves the mountains ...  Read the complete review

?The Claim? is set in 1867 in a small town in California?s Sierra Nevadas. The town is called Kingdom Come and is owned and run by Daniel Dillion, a wealthy business man. Dillion (Peter Mullan) has great plans for his town and one day hopes it will turn into a successful city. The folk of Kingdom Come respect the creator of the town. Life there is very peaceful and civilised. If someone steps out of line they are punished by Dillion and quickly forgiven. At the centre of Dillion?s plans for a bustling city is the introduction of a railroad. Realising this would bring better opportunities to his town, Dillion invites the chief surveyor of the Central Pacific ...  Read the complete review