''Dead Man's Burden'' is a 2012

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

film directed by

Jared Moshe Jared Moshe is an American-born film director, director, screenwriter and Film producer, producer of independent films. He wrote and directed the feature Westerns ''Dead Man's Burden'' (2012) and ''The Ballad of Lefty Brown'' (2017). He has also p ...

. The film premiered on June 16, 2012, at the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

and stars Barlow Jacobs and

Clare Bowen Clare Maree Bowen (born 12 May 1984) is an Australian actress and singer, best known for her role as Scarlett O'Connor in the ABC/ CMT musical-drama television series ''Nashville''. Alongside her music releases from ''Nashville'' and her solo d ...

as two siblings that reunite over the death of their father and a potential sale of their land.

Plot

Martha and her husband Heck are two hardy settlers trying to survive in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

after the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polic ...

and the death of Martha's father. They're given hope for a better life when a mining company shows interest in purchasing their

homestead Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses *Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres *Homestead principle, a legal concept th ...

, but things become tense when Martha's brother Wade, who

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union of the collective states. It proved essential to th ...

returns home after hearing of their father's death – unaware that Martha herself was the one who brought about his demise.

Cast

* Barlow Jacobs as Wade McCurry *

as Martha Kirkland *

David Call David Steven Call (born August 14, 1982) is an American actor. Personal life Call was born in Issaquah, Washington. He is a graduate student of the Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theater Company Acting School. Acting career Call's ...

as Heck Kirkland * Joseph Lyle Taylor as E.J. Lane *

Richard Riehle Richard Riehle (born May 12, 1948) is an American character actor. He portrayed Walt Finnerty on '' Grounded for Life'' (2001–2005) and The Warden on ''The Young and the Restless'' (2007). He also appeared in over 200 films, including '' Glory ...

as Three Penny Hank * Jerry Clarke as Sheriff Deacon * Adam O'Byrne as Archie Ainsworth * Travis Hammer as Ben Ainsworth * Luce Rains as Joe McCurry * William Sterchi as WC Claymore

Production

When writing the script for ''Dead Man's Burden'', Moshe wrote with the intent to cast the film with lesser known actors, as he didn't want "to bring in a big-name actor who didn’t look like they belong in that period." Moshe did not use

storyboards A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in t ...

, as the film had a tight budget and couldn't afford a storyboard artist, instead watching other Western films for inspiration and working closely with cinematographer Robert Hauer. Filming took place in

over an 18-day period, where the cast experienced freak storms that forced the cast to walk to the set but did not delay filming.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

the film has an approval rating of 74% based on reviews from 19 critics. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

the film has a score of 76% based on 12 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Common elements praised in the film was Moshé's choice in cast, which ''Variety'' lauded as a highlight. In their mostly positive review ''IndieWire'' remarked that the lack of major stars and the choice to film a Western (which they saw as a "mostly defunct genre") could jeopardize commercial prospects. The ''New York Daily News's'' review was more mixed, as they felt that the "verbose period film has the complicated plot and tight pacing of a cable TV drama, which is then squashed into an indie-film paradigm."

References

External links

* * * * * {{rotten tomatoes, dead_mans_burden 2012 films 2012 directorial debut films 2012 independent films 2012 Western (genre) films American Western (genre) films American independent films Films set in New Mexico Films shot in New Mexico Films directed by Jared Moshe 2010s English-language films 2010s American films