Jay is a well brought up young man aged 16. In about 1870 he decides to travel to the untamed state of Colorado in the hope of being reunited with Rose, the love of his life. He can count himself lucky that he meets Silas (Michael Fassbender): a travelling scientist who is researching indigenous tribes. For a fee, Silas offers to protect him. He has unparalleled knowledge of the dangers of the pristine wilderness and knows better than anyone how to dodge bullets.
The meeting between the naive teenager and the scientist is one of the many great scenes in Slow West. This is a revisionist western that offers a new cinematic take on the Wild West. There are Indians, bounty hunters, rugged prairies and superbly filmed shoot-outs. But that’s where any similarity with other films in the genre ends. This is chiefly a romantic and poetic film. It is no coincidence that Rose and Jay have the initials of the lovers in Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy. At Sundance 2015 the film won the Grand Jury Prize and director John Maclean was acclaimed as one of today’s most surprising filmmakers.