So I was watching The Power of the Dog the other day and to be honest I did not love it. But despite this, I had a wonderful time watching it! The viewing experience was really pleasant. And it sort of made me wonder how nice it would be if the whole average movie experience would feel like this.
The Power of The Dog tells the story of Phil Burbank – an intellectual cowboy who owns a ranch with his brother. The twist in the story comes in the form of his brother’s new wife and her son Peter. Phil seems to love tormenting the mother and son duo.
As the story goes on, we see Phil change. He finds himself softening and opening up to the possibility of friendship and love. But Peter has an agenda of his own. He states it at the beginning of the movie by questioning what kind of a man would he be if he did not save his mother.
The movie moves slowly but it is too intriguing for you to feel bored in any way. The plot hooks you and the stellar performances add to the enjoyment. The film is very atmospheric with very minimal dialogue. A lot of things were left for the audience to infer instead of being spelled out which felt nice.
But it’s the sound design and cinematography that take the movie to the next level. The soundtrack of the movie is designed to work with all the sounds that are happening in the story. Sounds like the horses’ hooves, whistling, rope braiding, and hands running across a comb’s teeth soundtrack provide a tempo and mix in and out with the movie score. This creates an atmospheric dread that works emotionally to make you feel the tension.
This is probably the first movie post-pandemic that I had a yearning to go watch in a movie hall. Imagine hearing this soundtrack in theatre speaker systems. The duet scene with the piano and the banjo is the peak example of how well sound design has been used. And the scene is definitely going to be a classic.
Then, there is the whole cinematography – I mean of course the movie was shot in New Zealand. That fecking country looks like a goddamn fairy tale land. I want to go to there. Besides the gorgeous background, the shots create a foreboding and erotic atmosphere. It also works to move the story along. By showing someone caressing a saddle or inserting the shot of horses running while something important is going on elsewhere, it gives us enough hint to assume what’s coming/happening.
I have only known Jane Campion through her Top of the Lake series. But I can already see a pattern in her work. Her works are both being highly atmospheric and highlight relationships between complicated characters. I will definitely be checking out more of her movies.
As I said at the beginning of this post, I didn’t love this movie. The main reason for that was the lack of emotional impact that it had on me. But for a movie that I did not love, the enjoyment I got from it was tremendous. The craft that went into the movie is the main reason for it. And this sort of makes you wonder why it can’t be so for the average movies out there.
