d./w./p. Thomas Lee Rutter; cast: Dale Sheppard, Gary
Baxter, Gary Shail, Richard Rowbotham, James Taylor, Bazz Hancher, Jim Heal, Maryan Forouhandeh
The list of British westerns is fairly short and frankly a
bit odd. Which is also a perfect description of Thomas Lee Rutter’s latest
feature. Rutter is the West Midlands auteur who gave me a couple of early
credits in his slasher Mr Blades and his werewolf romp Full Moon Massacre. Now
he’s working with real actors like Gary Shail from Metal Mickey and Richard
Rowbotham from The Grimleys – on a trippy microbudget horse opera. Ostensibly
based on a Mark Twain short story, there’s not a great deal of story here. But westerns
are not about narrative, they’re about a feeling, an essence: individuals
rattling around in a space so large it shouldn’t exist, occasionally
interacting in surprising, often violent, ways. Tom has caught the spirit of
the western genre (or at least, its more existential side) brilliantly. Parts
are talkie, the desert is a Welsh beach, accents are … variable … and the only horses
are stock footage. But Day of the Stranger feels right. Like Sergio Corbucci
took a day trip to Rhyl. It shouldn't work... but it does.
