The Damned Review: Chilly Civil War Journey Teeters Between Documentary and Reenactment

      Note: This review was originally part of our coverage for the 2024 NYFF. The Damned will be in theaters starting May 16.

      Robert Minervini's The Damned opens with two wolves feasting on an elk carcass, tearing at its skin and consuming its innards. Although this isn’t a nature documentary, such brutal imagery establishes a grim atmosphere for a film that envisions the experience of Union soldiers exploring uncharted Western territories in 1862. The weather is worsening, the landscape is unforgiving, food resources are scarce, the nearby woods conceal hidden threats, and there’s no sign of civilization. Each day presents a struggle for survival, community, and purpose.

      To convey this journey through darkness, Minervini recruited a cast of non-professional actors to depict what life might have been like during the Civil War in an untouched, desolate region of the nation. Throughout this portrayal of a challenging existence, battle-hardened sergeants and young scouts engage in the daily tedium of maintaining camp and engaging in casual conversation—setting up tents, playing cards, keeping watch, and heaving horse-drawn wagons up muddy slopes. Despite an intense battle sequence, the film mainly focuses on the impact of an ambiguous mission on this ragtag group of worn men, yet there isn’t quite enough drama to justify such meticulous efforts for authenticity.

      Though The Damned sometimes feels like a reenactment, Minervini makes a sincere effort to showcase the aimless priorities of war on its overlooked and underappreciated participants. Throughout his career, the Italian director (who has resided in the United States for over twenty years) has sought to blur the lines between documentary and narrative storytelling (Stop Pounding the Heart, The Other Side, What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?), illuminating the overlooked and ordinary facets of life with non-professional actors, whose vagueness and absence of star status lend credibility. He examines how landscapes and environments shape individuals, navigating between fiction and reality and utilizing that tension to unearth a deeper truth.

      At times, this approach can be striking and immersive. Midway through The Damned, the sound of musket fire disrupts the soldiers’ camp, causing them to scatter. It becomes impossible to discern the direction of the gunfire or the identity of the shooter. The faceless adversary heightens the suspense. Minervini amplifies the sound and captures the chaos through a perspective reminiscent of a third-person shooter game, closely following individuals as they hurriedly reload and fire into the treelines. This technique echoes the style of 1917, immersing the viewer in the tunnel vision of frightened soldiers, one of whom attempts to conceal himself by burrowing into a mound.

      Eventually, the gunfire subsides, leaving only lifeless bodies and haunted expressions. There are no clear heroes here, just individuals Minervini is eager to revisit and explore more deeply than others. “You realize your family is more important than your country,” one soldier admits, grappling with the aftermath of the ambush. Another recounts his motivation for joining the Union: “I needed a paycheck.” Their cause is not driven by some grand idea regarding their nation’s fate; instead, it is rooted in personal reasons, a practical choice that has led them to an isolated location and the crosshairs of an indistinct enemy.

      Minervini enhances this hyper-realistic journey with snippets of conversations and activities—musket practice, gold panning—that do not form conventional “scenes.” They establish the groundwork of a narrative that stagnates while reflecting on its existential themes. Its strongest element lies in the shallow-focused lens of cinematographer and score composer Carlos Alfonso Corral, who artfully plays with silhouettes against fires and captures the poetry in perilous conditions, such as delicate snowflakes resting lightly on a soldier’s bearded face. The intricacies of his compositions suggest intentionality. In a bleak and desperate situation (they’re “the damned” for a reason), all that remains to admire is the beauty of nature.

      The Damned premiered at the 62nd New York Film Festival and will be released by Grasshopper Film.