2023-05-26 10:48:30
Jacob Dutton looks at his country with a stony face. Dead cattle lie in the grass, flies are buzzing everywhere. A plague wipes out his flock. Not the only problem the rancher has to deal with. There are those Irish sheep farmers who think they can graze their animals on the Duttons’ land without a permit.
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The country is the country – not a square inch is given up
But the country is the country is the country. Ever since the “white man” stole it from the Native Americans, he hasn’t given up a single square centimeter – not even to the Irish who followed suit. Anyway: sheep ruin the grasslands for cattle and all other animals. “The grass belongs to God,” shepherd Banner Creighton (“Game of Thrones” star Jerome Flynn) tells the cattle baron, “and you are not God, Jacob!”
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Certainly not, but – Jacob, played by Harrison Ford – punishes like God. Recently awarded the Palme d’honneur at the Cannes Film Festival and soon to be seen again in cinemas as the adventure archaeologist Indiana Jones, Ford has been the hero of a series for the first time as Jacob Dutton. After that, the 80-year-old played the therapist Paul in the AppleTV+ comedy series “Shrinking”, which started in January. His Jacob Dutton isn’t the self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek Han Solo or Indiana Jones character, but rather the relentlessness with which he hunted deserted androids as Rick Deckard in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982).
Hard times in the past, hard times ahead
“1923” is – after “1883” – another spinoff of “Yellowstone”, the most-watched series on American cable television. In Montana, life is hard 100 years ago, the lawless days are not long ago and Black Thursday and the Great Depression are on the horizon. Problems are settled by the Duttons with shotgun or colt. “1923” Begins – Beware of Spoilers! – Correspondingly with an exchange of gunfire – Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton loads her rifle, her opponent lying on the ground hectically packs cartridges into his drum revolver. The slower will die.
Helen Mirren played Harrison Ford’s wife before – in Peter Weir’s escape from civilization drama “Mosquito Coast” (1986), which was recently filmed again as a two-season series for Apple TV+. 37 years later they are now the masters of the “Yellowstone” ranch.
How did that come about? The ranch was founded by Jacob’s brother James with his wife Margaret (played by married singers Tim McGraw and Faith Hill). Jacob and Cara took over the estate after James’ death in 1894 and devoted themselves to raising his sons John (James Badge Dale) and Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), and later John’s son Jack (Darren Mann). His marriage to the beautiful Elizabeth (Michelle Randolph) has to be postponed by two weeks at the beginning of “1923”. Because of the cattle. Cattle first!
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Many ghosts haunt the “Yellowstone” ranch. So it is not surprising that Elsa (Isabel May), the beautiful and shirt-sleeved daughter of James Dutton, who died tragically in “1883”, comments on the events with her singing narrative tone, almost from the afterlife: “Violence has always haunted the family,” she whispers, “violence has always been the curse of this family.”
Violence is also a not uncontroversial stylistic device of the “1923” creator, the Texan rancher’s son Taylor Sheridan, who raises soap operas to the level of great tragedies with his talent for strong characters, sparkling dialogues, simple plots and dramatic twists. Sheridan shows are addictive. In doing so, he occasionally approaches the border of intolerability – not only when Jacob Dutton lynches the shepherds in the hills far from town, who have cut through his fences to let their animals graze on his land again.
Two subplots lead to Africa and a missionary school
The series has two subplots. Dutton heir Spencer hires himself out in Africa as a hunting companion for rich Englishmen when the aristocrat’s daughter Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer), who is with her boring fiancé, falls madly in love with him. And in a mission school in the middle of the prairie, the ruthless nun Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and the even more cruel priest Renaud (Sebastian Roché) try to expel the indigenous culture from Indian girls in the strictly Catholic way. The young Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves), however, does not let the Jesus people break her through beatings or imprisonment.
In the US, these scenes in particular have been criticized as sadistic omissions towards members of the First Nations. However, they appear more as a criticism of Sheridan’s ongoing and often unpunished abuse of the church against underage wards.
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Incidentally, Teonna is the ancestor of casino and reservation boss Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), who has a mixed relationship with the Duttons in the parent series “Yellowstone”. The characters of the “Yellowstone” universe are connected vertically and horizontally, their stories converge, connect. Nevertheless, each of the three “Yellowstone” series (a fourth called “6666” is in preparation) can be viewed easily without knowing the others.
The American take-and-shoot nightmare
“1923” tells the story of the American Dream, which in reality is an alb of take and shoot, of greed, robbery and revenge. Ford looks good in the saddle and Western outfit. And Helen Mirren has something of the Queen’s Gravitas (the role for which she won an Oscar in 2007) when she invites her grandnephew’s postponed bride to the veranda for a clarifying chat. And at the same time she is a determined shotgun woman when it comes to protecting the family. Admittedly, Mirren’s Scottish is unconvincing, as is Jerome Flynn’s Irish. So it’s better to watch “1923” in the dubbed version.
As is often the case with Sheridan, the pictures are great cinema. This also raises his series above the competition. Cars and trucks roar through the dusty streets – side by side with cowboys on horseback. And while there’s still a saloon pole in front of the Silver Dollar Soda Shop for tying horses to, upbeat jazz blares in the speakeasys, where alcohol is clandestinely served. Modernity displaces the old times, which were never good. “Since I arrived here in 1894, not a single year has been easy,” agrees Jacob Dutton.
Of course, the worst is yet to come.
„1923″, first season, ten episodes, by Taylor Sheridan, with Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Darren Mann, Aminah Nieves, Jerome Flynn, Michelle Randolph, Timothy Dalton (from May 27 on Paramount+)
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