Netflix – American Primeval “: Like a snuff movie

There is not much left of the ironed, sweatless upper shirts that John Wayne wore in the Hollywood western of the 1940s and 50s. And the rosy, smooth-shaped faces from the early color film period of the US Western star have also disappeared. Here you sweat and bled into the camera, and the mud crusts and dirt strips on the bare upper bodies of the men can be smelled, so you imagine when watching. It is also cold and rainy. Here is not ridden into the sunset with a song on the lips, here you die in the dirt.

The six-part western series “American Primeval” (“ancient America”), which has recently been streamed on Netflix, also drives the aestheticization of violence quite far, but with the emphasis on “aesthetization”. That means: As you know from the good B-Pictures and exploitation films of the 70s and 80s, the open place is shown in great recording, from which the bone protrudes from the broken, blood-crusted leg, or it is shown how a scalp, which is absented half, is sewn up again (without anesthesia of the patient, sees). One of the cinematic role models of “American Primeval” was certainly the late western “Soldier Blue” (“The cradle song of the homicide”) from 1970, which broke out with traditional Hollywood western narratives and stereotyped representations (good US army/evil “Indians”) Step further than usual.

In this respect, this series is a beautiful allegory on the origin and developmental history of capitalism.

Now the viewer could say: »Bad! Exaggerated representation of violence! Do you have to shoot such series? ”But how aptly writes Elfriede Jelinek in her early novel» Michael «:» In reality, it’s not that bad. In reality it is worse. ”Because the actual cruelty and the misery cannot be represented in an entertaining way, but always have to be represented as a colorful and emotionally charged spectacle in order to be cultivally industrial, the representation of violence must always be a decorative in this series. And the supposed realism, for example, when the killing of women or children is staged, is not, but: a staging that is particularly interested in the show value: effectively falling body, a noisy soundtrack, lovingly and generously distributed artificial blood, clear gore effects. Such hocus -pocus is often confused with “historical authenticity”.

The story of “American Primeval” plays in 1857 during the so-called Utah War, as Mormonian pioneers, soldiers of the US Army and American indigenous people fight each other without protection. It is about the ubiquitous violence that is carried out with the establishment of a nation: it is a war of all against everyone, and everyone is the next. The army wages war against the Mormon militias who want to turn the United State a state of God; The Mormon militias wage war against the US Army and against settlers traveling by their lands; And all together wage war against the indigenous people, the “wild”. In between, on top of that, all sorts of bandits, psychopaths, bounty hunters and outlaws drive around who are only interested in money and their own progress. In this respect, this series is a beautiful allegory on the origin and developmental history of capitalism.

In the middle of this fray, of course, our identification figures still have to find space: a woman (the good heroine) and her little son fleeing to bad guy who truck after life, and a muzzle, closed man (the good male hero), who is modeled after those mulse, closed male heroes, who used to be embodied Clint Eastwood. As flat and one -dimensional and at times pathetic that everything is, it is also so effective, which is why the classification of the series is of course wrong. The opposite is the case, here the law of pulp fiction: Thrill follows thrill, lurid action, successful exploitation of the desire to show and fear. A bit like a snuff movie, but with top camera work and first -class image design.

Available on Netflix