Part IV   Undressed Under Duress   Slow Times

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In the 2013 movie, Slow West, sixteen year old Scotsman Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) goes on a quest to find the young girl he is deeply infatuated with. He travels to the American West Frontier from Scotland to search for Rose Ross. On the way he is shot through the hand with an arrow, witnesses a robbery which turns deadly, has all his clothes stolen, hooks up with Silas, a bounty hunter (Michael Fassbender), regains his horse and clothes, travels on horseback threatened by killers, and nearly drowns in a torrential rain storm / flash flood... 

Caught In a Flash Flood - Save the Underwear!

In this introduction to America, Jay is hoodwinked by a shyster who had befriended him. Taken under the wing of a medicine show barker, the lonely boy is given food and companionship around a warm campfire. The two turn in for the night under a beautiful, desert starlit sky. Devoid of mental and physical resources, Jay curls up under a thin blanket in only his union suit for a well-earned and peaceful snooze. He sleeps with his boots on to safeguard the money he has hidden in them. The sound sleeper doesn't know until the following morning that his new “friend” quietly sneaked off during the night. But not before the scoundrel stole everything the boy owned: horse, supplies, food, and clothes... 

Upon awakening, he finds a note left for him held down to the windy ground by one brown egg. He had been abandoned. Since he soon discovers the egg is raw and not hard-boiled, no breakfast is to be had. What to do?!

The ever determined and resourceful Jay wraps himself up in his blanket and continues the quest on foot in his union suit to find his true love.

Ahh, Food

Before  the day is out he is located by Silas, the bounty hunter, who provides Jay with food, clothes and a horse but only after the boy pays him from money in a wallet he had stashed in his boot for safe keeping. But Silas is not what he seems. 

After a middle-of-the-night downpour, Jay suggests to Silas they use a rope to hang and dry their clothes. So off into the sunset they ride, clothes strung between them, in their soggy long underwear....

Pushing onward, the bounty hunter and the boy face additional adventures, mostly challenging, until an unexpected and unsettling conclusion.

Trouble! 

We're Out of Here, Into The Woods.....

Safe for Now!

But More Trouble Awaits Our Hero...

Set in the Scottish Highlands and in Colorado, the film was produced by Film4 Productions, a British / New Zealand company. Filming commenced in October, 2013. It premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and won the World Cinema Jury Prize for Drama. It was released in the United States on May 15, 2015.

Get this Movie. It's surely the best contemporary western I've seen. There aren't many these days! 
... Chris