Five Fingers for Marseilles (2017) Reviews

• A very good movie..

  morenamokhothu2018-04-11

  NB: If you're Sotho, the accent and bad vocabulary will put you off. I'm glad I was told this before watching, so I went in prepared and told myself to ignore this. Viewing quality - The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and the cameraman wasn't stingy at all. During scenes, the panning is very clean. The night shots aren't so great for me though. They were a little restrictive with the lighting. The colour scheme shows that the town has warm weather, however, I wish the night lighting would resemble shots like these[goo.gl/Njhfg7]. The night scenes should have been nice, crisp, night shots, but with a warm feel instead of the cold blue like the image on that link. I've noticed that a lot of South African films are a little behind when it comes to lighting. Storyline - I will not be giving away much, but it's about a boy from a small oppressed town, who had to run away from his neighbourhood after doing something really bad and returned home as an adult only to find that the oppression hasn't changed - It is the oppressors who have changed. I'll refrain from adding to this to avoid giving spoilers. Quality of play - Apart from the accent, the acting and film quality was perfect. There are quite a few mysteries that make you feel like it would be a good idea to watch the movie again, but not at the cinema. It doesn't feel like a rush. Movie conclusion (my version) - You live by the gun, you die by the gun - Hence the constant and explicit 'voilence' references throughout the movie. The scene about the pastor at the very end sealed it for me. If you haven't watched you'll have to watch to understand. Sigh.. Okay about the Sesotho - I think Michael Matthews disregarded the fact that a bad accent can affect a movie negatively. I'm not sure if the target market is international, but South Africans, including non-Sotho speaking South Africans could hear that the accent was very off. This was with almost all the actors, including the main actors. It seems like the line-up was more important though. After all, seeing who is starring is has a lot of people interested in the movie. If only the actors spoke proper Sesotho.

• Well Crafted South African Western

  high_on_jesus2018-04-02

  This was a good movie. I can say I was highly impressed. The movie looked amazing first off. The camera work was amazing. Based off westerns, the movie is slow and dramatic but I loved the way the story and drama builds. I was always kept interested. The characters are interesting and the relationships between them are well crafted. The main actor is very cool in this movie and is a great protagonist. He plays the badass hero role perfectly. The villain is very creepy and they did a good job of making him a menacing and evil character. Most of the side characters are also interesting and have their own agendas and issues. I liked the R rating of this movie as they did not hold back in the scenes of violence. This allowed them to create some really intense scenes that really heightened the drama. I loved the movie up until the third act. I feel like the third act becomes a bit slow and tedious as it builds to the final act climax which is a confusing gun battle that could have been crafted a bit better in my opinion. The finale left a sick feeling in my stomach as the directors decided to express a strong philosophy through this story which makes the story feel senseless but besides the ending I feel like this was a very well crafted and entertaining film with some great acting and cinematography.

• Outstanding film from South Africa

  baumer2017-09-10

  I saw this film at the Toronto film festival and we were lucky enough to have Q&A with the cast and crew and we got to meet some of the cast. Before I get into the crux of the review, let me call attention to Vuyo Dabula. He exudes charm and has instant screen presence. At first glance, he reminded me of a young Idris Elba but meeting him face to face, he is much shorter and has different features, but has the same kind of love affair with the camera. When he is on screen, the film is that much better. He is articulate, good looking and demands attention. He also did almost all of his own stunts...and there a lot of them. He said in the question period that the only thing he was not allowed to do is fall off the horse. I expect to see him transition over to Hollywood one day. He already had a small role in Age of Ultron, it's just a matter of time before producers take notice of him. The film begins with 5 childhood friends who have had enough of police aggression in their small South African village. They start by throwing eggs and stones at the cops and then when one of the group gets taken, Tau, the most brazen of the group, takes her back forcefully. He kills two officers and then spends the next twenty years on the run. The five friends call themselves the Five Fingers of Versailles. Tau returns 20 years later to a town, and friends, transformed by the violence caused that day. With the crooked cops now replaced by a caustic gang, Tau must take a stand and fight for what he believes in. He can only hope that the other members of the five fingers still have what it takes to do the right thing. It's time to defend or be driven from the land. With inspiration from spaghetti Westerns, Tarantionoesque dialogue and even films like Gladiator and Roadhouse, it may pay homage in some ways to these films but director Michael Matthews and writer Sean Drummond put their own unique stamp on it and for a western movie-goer like me, I have never really seen it done like this before. Five Fingers for Marseilles subverts the genre by placing the story within the Indigenous community. We also witness really interesting character additions with a white travelling salesman and a Chinese store owner. I learned while watching the Chinese smash--Wolf Warrior 2 that China and South Africa have a rich tradition and strong history with one another. Michael Matthews was asked about his decision to add the salesman and the Chinese store owner, he replied that these are all authentic characters that you would find in a small place like the one in the film. Gorgeously captured by director of photography Shaun Harley Lee and beautifully directed by Michael Matthews, the film both honours westerns of the past while trailblazing its own path. I haven't seen a lot of westerns recently, but this is certainly one of the better ones of the last 30 years. This is a film that took 7 years to make, from the time of the idea to the final edit. It was a labour of love. There's a lot of violence and plenty of blood. It would certainly get an R rating here in Canada and the US. This is one of the areas the film excels. The direction allows the violence to percolate. It doesn't cut away from a lot of the gun shots, burning bodies, machete hacks and raw punches to the face. It's tough in that way, but it also benefits from it. I hope this gets a distribution deal in North America and I really hope it is remembered come Oscar night. Everything about it is top notch. Every actor was terrific, the script was superb and as mentioned the photography and direction were outstanding. 9/10

• South African Films getting better and better

  skyhawk772018-04-15

  Films coming out of South Africa are getting better & better. Last week i watched Catching Feelings and it was good. Yesterday i had to watch this one, who wouldn't after seeing the trailer and poster ? This film reminded me of Bruce Willis' 1996 cowboy movie Last Man Standing because they are alike. Difference is Fiver Fingers for Marseilles is not as straight forward and at 2 hours long it seems like 3 because the pacing is slow. The setting up of characters in this case epilogue is around 20 minutes. Then everything seem puzzling and you will ask yourself why, how, when. The biggest flaw is the script. It was written by a certain Sean Drummond who i presume is an English speaker and then given to a translator who did direct translation resulting in some dialogue/sayings/phrases being lost in the process. I don't even speak South African languages but i picked some of it. The other flaw is the casting. The younger Lerato of about 14 years old is light skinned (popularly known as yellow bones) as an adult woman she is now darker skinned which never happens thereby not making sense. It is mistakes like these that turn local audiences off because we feel we are being taken for granted. The bright side is the main cast is just brilliant. I had doubts about Vuyo Dabula's acting chops in Generations because he is one dimensional but now i am convinced he has talent. Hamilton Dhlamini who plays the villain is just magnificent that you would think he came out of a Hollywood horror movie. Veteran Kenneth Nkosi and newbie Zethu don't disappoint. Keep it up guys.

• Great movie!

  katstolle2018-10-05

  Five Fingers for Marseilles is Michael Matthew's modern take on the classic western genre. He pays homage to those films that came before his, especially to classic spaghetti westerns such as The Dollars Trilogy, known for their standoff scenes. The movie uses the stand-off to parallel itself, beginning with harmless slingshots and ending with guns. Sean Drummond, the writer, created characters I really enjoyed. This vibrant cast was made up of actors I had never seen before, and I was quickly pulled into the story. The director clearly understood the characters and what they needed for me to get lost in their portrayals of these hometown heroes turned villains. Vuyo Dabula, who plays the main character, did a great job portraying the anti-hero and I found myself both routing for and intimidated of him by the end of the film. Each character had their own past to deal with and I was captivated by how they all chose to deal with their mistakes. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it.