★ 6 / 10
***Alone in the unforgiving western wilderness*** After a
Wuchak
***Alone in the unforgiving western wilderness*** After a tragedy, a young woman (Jasmin Jandreau) is left alone in the remote woods during the mid-1800’s…
***Alone in the unforgiving western wilderness***
After a tragedy, a young woman (Jasmin Jandreau) is left alone in the remote woods during the mid-1800’s California Gold Rush. Can she survive and make it to civilization?
“The Trail” (2013), aka “Let God,” is obviously a low-budget Western in light of the miniscule cast and limited setting & events, plus a couple of obvious anachronisms, like zippers on a pair of boots, which weren’t even invented until 1893, not to mention goofs (a visible crew member and boom mic, both of which you have to actually look for to notice). Despite these shortcomings, this is a professionally made film with quality locations, an effective score and a decent lead actress. It successfully brings you to that time & place and lets you see what it was like for many settlers.
If you like settler/survival-oriented Westerns like “Meek’s Cutoff” (2010), “Gold” (2013), “The Homesman” (2014) and “The Revenant” (2015), you’ll likely appreciate “The Trail,” although it’s not as polished or eventful as the latter, which was a blockbuster. Unlike all of those modern Westerns, however, it shoots for something deeper, something spiritually profound, although it’s utterly subdued until the very end. It’s this particular aspect that makes the movie for me.
The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in the Lake Tahoe area, California, with some stuff done in Southern Cal (Temecula & Landers).
GRADE: B-
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★ 7 / 10
A Fine Film for a Patient Audience
mandybohannan
This movie has taken a lot of heat for historical inaccuracies and unrealistic circumstances (among other things). Still, it offers a good moral theme and does…
This movie has taken a lot of heat for historical inaccuracies and unrealistic circumstances (among other things). Still, it offers a good moral theme and does tell a compelling story without ruining the aforementioned with some sort of predictable, clichéd ending. It's worth a watch if you're the more patient type of viewer who enjoys an intellectual movie experience. Sit back and employ your "film reading" skills with this one. There's lots of symbolism. Though it does fall short on the type of action sequences that less sophisticated, mainstream audiences require these days, it does not disappoint with tension.
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