Shotgun Stories

Section: Discovery of America
Directed by: Jeff Nichols


United States, 2007

Dir.: Jeff Nichols
Scr.: Jeff Nichols
Phot.: Adam Stone
Editor: Steven Gonzales
Music: Ben Nichols, Lucero
Cast: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Michael Abbott, Jr. Travis Smith
Format: 35 mm
Colour
92 mins
www.shotgunstories.com
Contact: Anna Nogué, COACH14

Newly deceased Cleaman Hayes has fathered seven children by two women, with a break for rehab and business success between families. The first three are so blood simple he never gave them proper names: Son is a fish hatchery worker convinced he's about to crack the code at the nearby casino; Kid is pondering marriage even though he has no truck and lives in a pup tent; and Boy spends most of his free time -- make that most of his time, period -- fiddling with his ancient van. The second batch, clearly the favorites of the late Hayes pere, are led by family man Cleaman and include hot-headed Mark and older teenagers Stephen and John. Unlike the first Hayes brood, they're trying to make a go of a local farm.
When Son spits on his father's casket, Mark later instigates a fight among the half brothers: Kid retaliates, with tragic results.

A point-blank buckshot blast of inarticulate American rage, played with the disarmingly placid inevitability of Greek tragedy, Shotgun Stories is a precisely modulated yet cumulatively forceful story of a rural family feud turned deadly… Read as a cautionary tale on the futility of revenge, Shotgun Stories is a low-key thriller with the requisite genre tension. ( Eddie Cockrell)

See also:
	3:10 to Yuma		Body/Antibody
	Half Nelson		In the Valley of Elah
	Loren Cass		Rescue Dawn