The Hunter

DVD, The Hunter (2011) film

Sometimes you come across a film that is a truly unexpected gem, and for its lack of fanfare it seems even better. This is one of those films. Proof, if it were needed, that the BBC iPlayer has the potential to put one in touch with smaller, but no less dramatic and absorbing films, that otherwise might never have been encountered. It has a powerful ending that is both positive and redemptive, stronger for being on the heels of devastation, so coming to it on DVD, I'm surprised it hadn't stuck in my mind from when I first caught it on the iPlayer - I just had a vague recollection that the hunter of the title went against his paymasters and didn't do the deed he set out to, but that wasn't entirely the case and it was an incredibly affecting, tragic end. The exquisitely solemn landscapes, beautiful even in their bleakness, were as much a character in the story as New Zealand was to 'The Lord of The Rings,' and to see this solitary figure stride out amidst them brings tears to the eyes and a primal yearning that we all have within us for the natural world, its majesty and its remoteness.

Martin David is a kind of antihero (a professional hunter, hired by a shady corporation for a despicable assignment to hunt the last Tasmanian Tiger), if there can be simple concepts of hero and villain in such a subtle film that feels artistic without being artsy - even when we have a bunch of hippies having a little get together, we only see them as ordinary people doing cartwheels or sitting around chatting in an extraordinary landscape, where it could easily have degenerated into a cliched and obvious 'Save The Planet' angle. Instead it's about the precise, measured, unobtrusive David, a specialist of the highest order. At least, we assume he is, because we're pretty much told nothing except what we gather from his methodical, patient, and largely unemotional nature. The contrast between his lavish, glass-fronted hotel room where every piece of toiletry is ordered and he listens to classical music on an iPod, is roughly contrasted by the homely, but neglected, surroundings he finds himself in. Clearly a lot is going on in his mind, but we're not privy to that, so there's some amusement to be had by the innocent way the children of the shack he rents out a room in, invade his boundaries of necessary privacy and isolation.

A perfect antidote for all the big budget, mega-blockbuster, epic cinema that muscles most of the attention, and proof that drama can be had without bombast, menace without manifest violence and explosive action. The world David enters is vastly different, either from his experience or tastes, but in his own way he's a kindly man, allowing his professionalism to suffer a little in response to the woman and children. It's not as simple as turning up to look for a Tiger and fulfil his hunting quota, he is confronted by unemployment issues versus conservation with some people overtly aggressive, others more grey in motivation (such as the family's watcher, ideally cast with Sam Neill in the role, since he's so often the straight arrow good guy). This could easily have been the kind of film where the main character takes on a bar full of burly, angry patrons with nowhere to vent their anger, except at strangers, to show how manly he is, but though he's pushed too far at one point, it doesn't become 'First Blood,' with a lone wolf against the world.

David is diplomatic, cultured, capable and well skilled in both domestic and forest survival, though the last thing he wants is attention brought to himself. But he's also not a stone heart and can't bring himself to tell the family what has happened to their missing Father, tasked as he was by the forthright little girl to look out for him when he goes off into the wild. From the off, quite apart from the uncertain tone (which makes you uneasy, and not entirely sure where the story is going to go), there's a mix of menace from the people, and melancholy from the wilderness, which has been marked for logging. Just as David is a marked man, slurred with the derogatory title 'Greenie' for his cover as scientist and conservationist, the forest is also marked for destruction. This place where a man can get lost for days on end will eventually be gone.

Willem Dafoe's haggard face and piercing blue eyes are the perfect reflection of the wilds staring back at him, and while the film can become a little slow, in those moments of the man wandering the landscape, planting, baiting or checking traps, even then it has an element of ancient survival about it. Could there be others doing exactly what he's doing? Is he alone up there, apart from the animals? Amidst all this heightened survival stuff, tolerating the elements, you feel he's more at home there than the society he periodically returns to. At the same time he makes improvements to the little shack and the lives of the family it holds, fixing them both with his simple desire for order - cleaning the bath; making the children dinner; restoring the woman by removing her suspiciously prescribed drugs. It's a wonderfully tragic moment when she first awakes to the sound of her husband's record player, the electricity flowing after Martin's mended the generator: half in a dream stumbling joyously out to her family, only to be shocked to find, rather than the missing husband, unexpectedly returned beyond hope, a stranger celebrating with her children. Dafoe has such a stark face that it would have been very much a shock if you thought you were embracing your long lost husband only to look up and see him instead!

It's noticeable that things are much more peaceful when David is away from people, around which only then is there foul language and high tempers, the wilds a refuge for his craft as much as his occupation - he's a character that I'd happily see another film about since we're left with an open future for him, and no doubt Red Leaf want him dead, so there's no lack of story potential. But perhaps I'm missing the point, and this expertly contained story is all the better for not giving us backstory and laying all the cards out on the table right from the off. Maybe it's better left as it is and wanting more from this character and his world is greedy after being satisfied? It's an inspiring film that doesn't take the easy, Hollywood route, and you can imagine just how it would have been altered for the worse if suits had forced their input. It's better because it isn't what you'd expect, not a typical story you can guess the stages of. Probably because it was a book first, one I really must get hold of… I'm not saying it's a masterpiece of modern cinema, but it is a satisfying story, refreshing, and definitely recommended by me.

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