Taylor Sheridan is one of today’s great storytellers with some masterful writing credits under his belt including Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River – which he also directed. Those Who Wish Me Dead sees Sheridan step behind the camera once more, and while this outing isn’t an overly memorable one and doesn’t compare to the top tier films of his that were just mentioned, it is a fun, often intense ride for the 100-minutes that it’s a part of your life.
The film stars Angelina Jolie as Hannah, a smokejumper who is having trouble dealing with mistakes she made during a jump that ended up costing another smokejumper and three young children their lives. After doing poorly on a psych evaluation given to her shortly after these events, Hannah is posted in a fire lookout tower deep in the heart of Park County, Montana. While out getting some air Hannah comes across a boy alone in the woods named Connor (Finn Little) who has just witnessed his father get murdered by a pair of assassins, Jack (Aiden Gillen) and Patrick Blackwell (Nicholas Hoult.)
Connor has information that his dad wrote down and passed along to him before being killed that is apparently damning to many people in power and the reason they were being chased. They were on their way to stay with Connor’s uncle Ethan (Jon Bernthal,) who is the Deputy Sheriff of this town, as well as Hannah’s ex-boyfriend, but were attacked on the road by the Blackwells before they arrived. Now it’s up to Hannah to get Connor back to town safely before they share the same fate as his father with the Blackwells hot on their trail.
The movie is based off the book of the same name by Michael Koryta and I have to believe that the book delves into things a bit better than the film – though Koryta did co-write the script, so maybe I’m wrong. There are a few things that have to be ignored so that the film can just be enjoyed as an intense action flick that comes on as strong as the wildfires within the film and burns through just as fast. The whole film takes place over the course of roughly 24-hours (well, after the initial opening scenes which seem to take place the day before) and that works to its advantage of keeping things tight and interesting despite the shortcomings.
One of the major things that has to be ignored is the fact that Connor’s dad, Owen (Jake Weber) is incredibly paranoid once he realizes that his boss was killed that morning and because he was the only other one that knew the incriminating evidence they were after that he and his son were likely next. His first instinct is to go seek refuge with his brother-in-law Ethan, which seems somewhat illogical since he says that the only safe thing that he can do with the information he has is to get it broadcast over the news because nobody else in power can be trusted with it.
If this is the case then why go on the run? Owen takes $10,000 out of his bank account and heads out with Connor on the long trek to Montana. Why wouldn’t he drive right over to the news station and talk to a reporter and get the story out there? I mean, if that was his plan when he arrived at Ethan’s then why spend all that time heading out there when there have to be dozens of news outlets on the way? Again, this may be explained better in the book, and you can make up your own excuses that Owen didn’t think that they’d be safe in Jacksonville with these killers after them, but you shouldn’t have to. If it is covered in the book then it should have been touched on here too with how pivotal it is to the plot.
Another thing is how lucky the Blackwells get at guessing where Owen and Connor are headed. Patrick stumbles upon a picture of Owen and Ethan on the wall of Owen’s house and they basically put all their eggs in the basket that there’s no question that’s where he’s headed. They even fly out there so that they can cut them off before they arrive. I know they’re professionals, but what if Owen did just go to a local station? Here they are flying out to Montana and Owen simply drove 30-minutes away and is spilling the beans while the Blackwells are still in the air chewing on peanuts.
These are things I usually don’t like to pick apart, but I feel like they do need to be mentioned because it makes things so convenient to the point where the movie loses some credibility because things are just happening so the movie can happen instead of for more logical reasons. But if you ignore those things and just kind of pretend that there’s reason behind those choices, the movie itself is a solid bit of fun thanks to Sheridan’s great directorial eye, as well as the strong performances by the actors involved.
Sheridan has set the film up so that, as he puts it, the world is a character in the movie. When Jack starts a forest fire to keep the locals busy while they’re hunting for Connor, the fire truly does become one of the film’s major antagonists and helps add to Hannah’s arc and having to deal with her past to try and survive in the present. They actually did set a contained, backlot built multi-acre forest on fire to capture the fantastic visuals of this living, breathing monster. These intense moments are elevated with some scarily accurate visual effects that make this fire feel like it has a personal vendetta against these characters who are trapped in its path.
Sheridan also doesn’t hold back when it comes to the violence in the film, but he also doesn’t glorify it. While there’s a lot happening that may not be viewed as overly realistic and is more there for pure entertainment value, the fight scenes are rather visceral, and Jolie isn’t afraid to get her hands – or entire body – dirty when it comes to going toe to toe with both the bad guys and the elements. Jolie is one who likes to be as involved as she can in her stunts according to the film’s stunt coordinator Wade Allen, so it’s nice to get to see her face up close during some of the crazier scenes in the film.
These are some of Those Who Wish Me Dead’s saving graces, and also that it doesn’t try to be bigger than it needs to be and it keeps its story fairly simple. This allows for the characters to each have their moments, for the action sequences to be fairly consistent and also gives the viewer less time to ponder some of the bigger questions that may otherwise cause the story to go up in smoke faster than the burning forest it takes place within.
Blu-ray Video and Audio Review
The film looks great across the board, though it’s not something that will push your TV to its limits at all. It’s based on a digital 2K intermediate, and there are some really fantastic looking fire scenes here, and while some of the background shots of the wooded areas within the tower were added in later, it’s not overly obvious or something that takes away from the film. There are a few CGI action moments that are noticeable and aren’t as strong as they could’ve been, but the more pivotal moments the viewer is invested in are handled well.
On the audio side of things we’ve got DTS-HD 5.1 and it sounds really, really good on all fronts. The action scenes come off suspenseful and in your face, and that’s exactly what you want when you’re supposed to feel as though you’re in this forest fire with these characters. The dialogue also comes through nicely, and the mix works well together, so this is a win on the audio transfer for the disc.
Special Features:
Making Those Who Wish Me Dead – This is the lone special feature on the disc and is just under 15-minutes in length. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie, how they chose locations, praising Sheridan as a storyteller, Jolie as an actress, and what was filmed on the backlot in sets they built and added to in post-production. It’s fairly simplistic and is basically a ‘better than nothing’ scenario as far as interest goes towards it.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents Those Who Wish Me Dead. Directed by: Taylor Sheridan. Written by: Michael Koryta, Charles Leavitt, Taylor Sheridan. Starring: Angelina Jolie, Finn Little, Jon Bernthal, Aiden Gillen, Nicholas Hoult, Medina Senghore, Jake Weber. Running time: 100 Minutes. Rating: 14A. Released on Blu-ray: Aug. 3, 2021.
About Brendan Campbell
