American Primeval - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

RELENTLESSLY bleak and unapologetically brutal aren’t necessarily two descriptions you’d associate with accompanying a glowing recommendation, but in the case of Peter Berg’s American Primeval (a Netflix limited series) they fit perfectly.

A frontier Western that takes place in the wake of the Indian wars, Berg’s limited series boasts a strong ensemble cast and an intelligent script from The Revenant’s Mark L Smith (no stranger to chronicling the challenges of frontier life or exposing the cruelty of humanity).

At its core, it’s a survival piece and chase thriller, primarily focusing on a woman named Sara (Betty Gilpin) and her son Devon (Preston Mota) trying to get from Philadelphia to the boy’s father in Crook Springs, Utah, while keeping one step ahead of the bounty hunters on their trail who want Sara for murder.

When they arrive at a lone trading outpost named Fort Bridger they are ‘taken in’ by fellow travellers who see safety in numbers while attempting to navigate the frontier and its various threats.

But they don’t reckon on stumbling into a real-life historical event: the Mountain Meadows Massacre, near Salt Lake City, during which an estimated 150 white settlers, including Mormons, were killed in an attack thought to have been carried out at the behest of Brigham Young, the founder of the Church of Latter-day Saints.

Surviving the ensuing bloodshed, Sara and Devon fall under the protection of grizzled frontiersman Isaac Reed (Taylor Kitsch), who - together with a runaway Indian named Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) - continue to head to Crook Springs, forming an unlikely family in the process. It’s here that Berg seems to be borrowing or paying homage to classic Western tropes such as The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Also surviving the massacre, meanwhile, are newly married LDS couple Jacob and Abish Pratt (Dane DeHaan and Saura Lightfoot-Leon) - albeit separated. She is initially taken by the Pauite tribe, before befriending the Shoshone, led by the revered Red Father (Derek Hinkey).

It is the Shoshone who are being blamed for the massacre and whose leaders are in disagreement about whether to engage with the invaders of their country on peaceful or violent terms.

Jacob, meanwhile, is left for dead, part-scalped and eventually hooks up with his brothers in Christ - unaware they were responsible for his fate in the first place.

Added to the mix is Fort Bridger creator Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham), who faces his own reckoning with Brigham Young (Kim Coates) over the future of his strategic trading post.

Berg’s series has a lot of separate components that, once dispersed, have to work hard to come back together. But when they do, the results are satisfying and not always as predictable as first seemed.

There are nods to other genre entries, with the bleakness of Cold Mountain certainly to the fore, as well as (obviously) The Revenant and entries such as Hostiles and Dances With Wolves, with even a little Shane.

But I’ve also been a long time admirer of Berg who, Battleship aside, has made a career out of anger and indignation at US policy and attitude, shining a light on several tragedies and the shortcomings of mankind.

Deepwater Horizon, for instance, looked at the corporate neglect at the heart of an oil rig disaster, while his previous Netflix series Painkiller shone a painful light on the opioid crisis. Patriots Day looked at the war on terror and its subsequent impact on the Boston Marathon, as did Lone Survivor and its examination of military heroics and the consequences of doing the right thing. Even Mile 22 took a sceptical view of US policy and framed it into a superb, if under-rated, action thriller.

Here, there’s anger at the many injustices of frontier life and politics - from the massacre and displacement of America’s first people to the use of religion to mask horror and exploitation. There are cover-ups, betrayals and dishonesty throughout, with decency in short supply.

American Primeval paints a very bleak view of America’s founding fathers that manages to hold a mirror up to current practices and ideology - viewers may well recognise some very Trumpian attitudes to wealth and land grabs, as well as the use of religion to promote dangerous agendas. Greed is very much to the fore.

But the irony of America’s currently right wing immigration agenda won’t be lost on more astute viewers either.

Surviving in such extremes is like living on a knife edge. And it shows on the desperation of hardship etched on the faces of so many cast members. Kitsch, in particular, is a man of few words, scarred by past losses, who reluctantly rediscovers his heart and sense of decency through his interactions with Gilpin and Mota.

As mother and son, they cling to a hope that there is a better life awaiting them. But their journey is as unforgiving as it is morale-sapping and every one of the party will be tested by the journey’s end (if they can even make it). Gilpin displays a fierce sense of resolve throughout; her gutsy performance one that imbues the show with what little sense of hope it offers.

Elsewhere, however, that hope is in short supply, most notably for DeHaan's ever worsening Jacob, whose desperate search for his new wife comes at cost to his own sanity. Where once he wore his own sense of optimism with pride, he is completely broken by the finale: the wounds he receives from his scalping deliberately designed to evoke a man rotting away from the outside.

Lightfoot-Leon is also compelling as Abish, her own journey perhaps less traumatic once she has earned the respect of the Shoshone tribe. But it's imbued with tragedy, too, given that her presence in any land after witnessing the massacre places both herself and anyone that she comes to care for in serious jeopardy. Her gradual appreciation for the Shoshone way of life, coupled with her realisation that her own people may well be the bad guys, is nicely played and gives rise to another of the show's memorable conclusions.

But throughout, American Primeval is blessed with terrific performances. The Native American portrayals are balanced yet suitably angry, Coates brings modern political deceit and corruption to his portrayal of Young without over doing it, and Whigham is as brilliant as ever... his entrepreneur one of few capable of standing up to the Mormons, who seemingly holds his fate in his own hands after years of working hard to earn that kind of security.

If the violence feels too relentless for some, then that's fair enough - for American Primeval is a tense affair throughout, shot through with a sense of impending threat: both physical and sexual. Not many will survive. And there are only a handful of characters within the rich ensemble to genuinely like.

But as an insight into the hardships faced by those who made the trip West, as well as the atrocities their migration generated (both upon first nation people and each other), it's an eye-opening, often wince-inducing history lesson that is rooted in a lot of cold, hard truth. It's Berg doing what Berg does best and making no apologies for doing so.

The victories that any of his characters earn therefore feel that much more earned.