Outpost

I actually saw this film a while back, and I loved it. Its simple, clear, straight to the point... and there are no women in it at all. The reason I'm posting about it now, is because I am inspired by having seen Ray Stevenson, who is the lead in this film, in 'Rome'.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I love female characters, and I have no problem with the bad girls kicking ass... but sometimes, female warrior characters get in the way of the hardcore testosterone fuelled 'war narcotica'. By which I mean films where machine gun fire is included for its own aesthetic value. This is one such film (the ultimate machine gun film is of course 'Black Hawk Down', which doesn't have any female characters either) and the realisation in 'The Outpost' is just brilliant. A small team of mercenaries, from various countries and backgrounds, are hired by a quiet scientist type fellow to escort him into a war zone, some where in eastern Europe, to survey some real estate...


The only problem is, the real estate in question is a forgotten Nazi bunker (yes, another one), whose secrets are still guarded by its owners. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

This film was made by a husband and wife team who put all their money into the venture, even to the point of mortgaging their home to raise the necessary cash. I have to respect that kind of dedication, because its that sort of drive that makes for good cinema in my opinion. The less money you have, the more creative you have to be.

Simply regard 'The Duellists' Ridley Scotts finest film in my opinion, or 'THX1138'. Lucas never managed to recapture the magic. By this metric, I doubt they will ever be able to repeat their success.