Emily GET YOUR GUN
Emily Blunt stars in a western with a twist: she’s a Victorian aristocrat from England who’s trekked to the wild frontier in search of bloody revenge
From The Devil Wears Prada and The Young Victoria to Sicario and A Quiet Place, Emily Blunt has defied being pigeonholed, conquering Hollywood with ease and leaping between comedy, historical romance and blockbuster thrillers.
Now, as the charismatic British star returns to the small screen for her first TV role in 17 years, she is still uncategorisable, taking the lead in an epic western that blends action, tragedy and pitch-black humour to create a captivating, unforgettable story.
The hotly awaited new series from maverick writer-director Hugo Blick (Black Earth Rising, The Honourable Woman) plunges us into the brutal, unforgiving landscape of the American frontier in the late 19th Century, where death is quick and cheap and men pay almost no heed to the laws that govern civilised society.
But there’s a twist, as the title suggests. It is set when many of the English gentry bought up land in America and went there to build a fortune. Wealthy, elegantly attired Englishwoman Cornelia Locke (Blunt, right), though, has journeyed across the Atlantic, leaving behind her comfortable existence with a specific and darker goal in mind: to find the man responsible for her son’s death and kill him.
It is a quest filled with risk as she ventures out on her own but, by a stroke of great fortune, she’s thrown together with a Native American,
Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer, Sam Uley in the Twilight films), a
Pawnee scout who is on his own mission of revenge.
Theirs is the unlikeliest of partnerships, but while they help one another, a sense of respect and even affection begins to grow between them as they get closer to their goals.
Blick’s imaginative script doesn’t shy away from the violence of the American West and also confronts us with the appalling racism and misogyny of the past, yet it lightens the story with moments of entrancing, poetic lyricism.
Blunt tears into the role of Cornelia with brio, presenting us with a thoroughly modern woman who is possessed of a fearless sensibility and relishes being freed from the constraints of Victorian society.
There’s quality all through the cast – also featuring Ciarán
Hinds, Stephen Rea, Toby Jones and Rafe Spall – while the thrilling music score by Argentinian composer Federico Jusid is in the great tradition of Ennio Morricone.
The sumptuous cinematography provides stunning vistas that are best appreciated on a big screen. But before you start flying off to the US in search of the incredible locations, note that – like parts of many Morricone-scored and later spaghetti westerns – it was filmed in Spain.