The story is as old as Cain and Abel. One brother is kind and the other is a killer. As a family struggles to stay together, it is eventually torn asunder. There is a biblical quality to "A Violent Separation" that gives the film depth and unviersality in its emotional impact.
In the bonus track of the DVD of the film, the co-directors, the Goetz brothers, described their film as "ordinary people in extraordinary situations." They might have added that the extraordinary situations are of the characters' own doing. In ancient Greek tragedy, there is a fateful moment for the protagonist when is a choice made with unforeseen consequences. There is such a moment in "A Violent Separation" when the young police officer Norm chooses to participate with his wayward brother Ray in a "cover up" of a crime. It is that choice that leads both characters down the tragic path.
From the extras segment of the DVD, it was interesting to learn that a number of the cast members were from the UK. Their work accomplished on dialect was superb in the characters' speech patterns from rural Missouri. There was also fastidious attention to detail on the part of the Goetz brothers for their camera work, set-ups, and the overall film aesthetics. There was a striking beauty of the Missouri landscape juxtaposed with the tawdry situation of the two brothers as they became steeped in crime and in guilt.
The women's roles in the film were also fascinating in the contrasting pair of sisters (Abbey and Fran) set in relief with the two brothers (Ray and Norm). Other characters, including the taciturn grampa and the savvy sheriff were nuanced human portraits. All were drawn into the film's moral dilemma in which the crime must be solved in the same way that Sophocles crafted the tragic dilemma of Oedipus.
While the film was set in 1983 in the heartland of America, there was a timeless dimension to "A Violent Separation." When the sheriff describes his philosophy of solving the crime, the words that he uses are "man and time" that hold the keys to the truth. Those universal values help to invest the film with its powerful context of myth.
In the bonus track of the DVD of the film, the co-directors, the Goetz brothers, described their film as "ordinary people in extraordinary situations." They might have added that the extraordinary situations are of the characters' own doing. In ancient Greek tragedy, there is a fateful moment for the protagonist when is a choice made with unforeseen consequences. There is such a moment in "A Violent Separation" when the young police officer Norm chooses to participate with his wayward brother Ray in a "cover up" of a crime. It is that choice that leads both characters down the tragic path.
From the extras segment of the DVD, it was interesting to learn that a number of the cast members were from the UK. Their work accomplished on dialect was superb in the characters' speech patterns from rural Missouri. There was also fastidious attention to detail on the part of the Goetz brothers for their camera work, set-ups, and the overall film aesthetics. There was a striking beauty of the Missouri landscape juxtaposed with the tawdry situation of the two brothers as they became steeped in crime and in guilt.
The women's roles in the film were also fascinating in the contrasting pair of sisters (Abbey and Fran) set in relief with the two brothers (Ray and Norm). Other characters, including the taciturn grampa and the savvy sheriff were nuanced human portraits. All were drawn into the film's moral dilemma in which the crime must be solved in the same way that Sophocles crafted the tragic dilemma of Oedipus.
While the film was set in 1983 in the heartland of America, there was a timeless dimension to "A Violent Separation." When the sheriff describes his philosophy of solving the crime, the words that he uses are "man and time" that hold the keys to the truth. Those universal values help to invest the film with its powerful context of myth.