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Movies / On DVD / Shotgun Stories
Shotgun Stories

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Shotgun Stories (2007)

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Reviews Counted: 39

Fresh: 36

Rotten:3

Average Rating: 7.3/10

Consensus: Thanks to a talented cast and its uncommon depth, Nichols' debut manages to rise above its overly familiar plot.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2008 Limited

Synopsis: Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His... Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His brothers, Boy and Kid Hayes, don't discuss it. His past, just like these scars, is never far behind him.

This stands true for the memory of his father, a man that never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who to this day blames her children for the life she's been left with and the man she could not keep.

Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons. All of who received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to, a man successful in business, community and family. His only true failing being the sons he turned his back on.

At the beginning of the film, we find Son, Boy and Kid as grown men. The three brothers' lives progress and their futures play out, but their past inevitably comes to claim them. Following a dispute at their father's funeral, a feud begins to simmer between these sons and the new young men their father has raised. It is an anger that has always rested uncomfortably in the background of their lives. However now, it is a thing that will rise up to overtake them all. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.

--© Official Site [More]

Starring: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canerday

Starring: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canerday, Glenda Pannell, Michael Abbott Jr., Travis Smith

Director: Jeff Nichols

Director: Jeff Nichols
Producer: David Gordon Green, Lisa Muskat, Jeff Nichols
Composer: Ben Nichols
Studio: International Film Circuit Inc.

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Release:

Jul 1, 2008

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Reviews for Shotgun Stories

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Good natural performances.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
02/16/09
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The credentials of many festival screenings might suggest to alert viewers that this isn't a shoot 'em up between two hill billy clans

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
12/04/08
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

Like Malick, Nichols knows that the sight of a combine transforming an Arkansas cotton field into an apocalyptic dust storm is as eloquent as anything his characters might say.

Full Review Source: Looking Closer | comment Comment
11/26/08
Jeffrey Overstreet
Looking Closer

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
10/18/08
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A precisely modulated yet cumulatively forceful story of a rural family feud turned deadly.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
10/18/08
Eddie Cockrell
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Brilliantly acted, superbly directed and beautifully shot, this is a gripping drama that really gets under your skin and marks writer-director Jeff Nichols out as a talent to watch.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/18/08
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

Set in rural Arkansas, Jeff Nichols' relaxed, distinctive debut revels in the milieu of its redneck characters, but injects their rural half-blood feud with an almost mythic quality.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
10/18/08
Steve Rose
Guardian [UK]

Writer/director Jeff Nichols is one to watch. He has fashioned a simple but powerful cautionary tale, equal parts Southern Gothic and Greek tragedy, and has given a familiar kind of material a fresh spin.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bonnie Fazio
Reel.com

I'm sick of the kind of exceptional that Shotgun Stories represents.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
09/02/08
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central

The real key to the film is the commanding Michael Shannon.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
08/05/08
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Cinematical

The end reveals just how poetic, shifting and dazzling Nichols' touch was all along. That's because Shotgun Stories manages to pull away from a hair-trigger resolution with the same inherent right-ness that loaded the story with such tragic force.

Full Review Source: Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada) | comment Comment
07/10/08
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Director Jeff Nichols lets the action unfold slowly following an impromptu insult, but the escalation of hatred and pain feels natural.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
07/09/08
Maureen M. Hart
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This low-key yarn about lowbrow men isn’t for everyone. But whatever its faults and limitations, Shotgun Stories casts a spell unlike any other movie we’ve seen in ages.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
06/20/08
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

... here there's also an undercurrent of biblical revenge that lends the narrative a sense of violent menace and an almost continuous tension.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
06/06/08
Joshua Katzman
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Few films are so observant about how we relate with one another. Few are as sympathetic.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
06/06/08
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Jeff Nichols modern Western is laconic and lazily captivating, its silence slowly building to rage.

Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly | comment Comment
05/15/08
Amy Nicholson
I.E. Weekly

An allegory of our times, Shotgun Stories is a tragedy of biblical scale and an intimate family drama.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
05/08/08
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

It's clearly a labor of love and no doubt true to some regional ways and attitudes. But jeez, it's self-parodic, and all the more so for taking place in some uncharted corner of Dixie where nobody has the slightest sense of humor.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
04/25/08
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Shotgun Stories is a cautionary tale about revenge, but more than that, it is a beautiful, authentic-feeling portrait of a family and a place.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
04/25/08
Michael Ordoņa
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An interesting first effort from Nichols -- making him a director to look out for in the future.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/11/08
Ross Bennett
Empire Magazine
 
 
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