MATTHEW BARNEY’S REDOUBT
Breathtaking, Mysterious and Mythical
The Movie Redoubt is a surreal experience. The trailer focuses on Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains. IMDB describes Redoubt as a journey of “characters [who] communicate a mythological narrative through dance, letting movement replace language as they pursue each other and their prey.”
Redoubt opens with the man versus the wild theme, similar to other wilderness epics like Liam Neeson’s The Grey or Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant. First, there is a woman with a sniper rifle aiming at a lone wolf. Some rituals involve complex body movements and eerie music. “The title REDOUBT refers to natural fortifications that provide solace and/or American Redoubt, a far-right survivalists movement.” The dances show the cult element of the group.
Redoubt’s blend of mythology, violence, and performance seeks to connect survival in the wild with Christian superstructures. The Redoubt movement is a community of right-wing conservative Christians in the northwestern United States. It prepares for the collapse of the economy and government.
Matthew Barney, the director, uses unorthodox storytelling to illustrate survivalist culture and sell a political message, exposing the violent ideologies of the American Redoubt movement. First, it’s important to note that Grasshopper Films produce Redoubt. This production company is responsible for award-winning films such as Sweetgrass, Hill of Freedom, and Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors. These films have a political agenda, and Redoubt aspires to create art at the highest level to disrupt social conceptions about this political group and the perceptions of the American wilderness.
This production company uses artful storytelling to communicate a larger message about animal hunting versus human killing. Variety writes, “[Redoubt] spans six allegorical hunts (since the shooter was real, but the kills were staged) in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, where Barney grew up.”
Barney applies a unique aesthetic, which is minimalistic, potent, and offers set pieces like no other. There are bizarre edits that cut from “Diana played by real-life sharpshooter Anette Wachter,” to a woman dancing with obscure interconnected rings attached to her body. This dance sequence is interrupted by a gunshot signifying that Diana shot the wolf. Another scene involves two people with mangled faces dancing with one another, alluding to a connection between man and beast. These images haunt the viewer and construct a dark and unpleasant underside to this film.
Watch the Redoubt trailer below.
