Culture Cinema & Tv Show reviews

The English

The English | Show review

Hugo Blick’s Western miniseries, The English is something of a meeting of subgenres. The sweeping odyssey of Emily Blunt’s Cornelia Locke, an English aristocrat who arrives in the Wild West with the intention of avenging the death of her son, and Chaske Spenser’s Eli Whipp, a member of the Pawnee Nation and former cavalry scout with enemies to spare, who reluctantly (yet as an inevitable matter of dramatic course) becomes Locke’s road buddy, calls to mind the so-called Golden Era of Westerns, á la John Ford’s Stagecoach. Yet, with its playful interweaving of subplots, Blick’s heightened dialogue and its deliciously stylish brutality, The English perhaps more readily calls to mind the spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone that bridged the gap between the black-and-white morality of Ford and the technicolour ambiguity of the revisionist westerns of Altman and Peckinpah. 

A fabulously utilised extended cast realises a revolving door of repugnant characters at various stages of unshavenness, the kinds of faces on which Leone so loved to linger. A standout performance from Ciarán Hinds, for example, oozes with a vicious sleaze that instantly informs viewers they are not in a romantic idyll of opportunity, orienting them in a lawless cesspit where life is expendable. All the while, precisely constructed set pieces offer a tension that can, at times, be disarmingly interwoven with a dash of melancholy pathos. There is still a place for romance in The English, however, as the Spanish landscapes that double up as the Wild West (as they did for Leone so many times) are shot with a crystalline grandeur and vibrancy that is almost impossible to take one’s eyes off, supplemented by moody dialogue punctuated with modern spikes, mostly carved by the characteristically formidable Blunt. 

It is the central relationship between Whipp, a character whom Tony Soprano may hastily cite as “the strong, silent type”, and Locke, a sharp, withering, adaptable character, that imbues the series with much of its intrigue. They metaphorise the duality, the meeting of worlds that has always been at the heart of the Western, and their chemistry is playful, if slightly (thus far at least) formulaic. 

The opening episodes of The English break no significant ground, but the series is a welcome reminder of the adaptability and beauty of the genre.

Matthew McMillan

The English is released on BBC2 and available on BBC iPlayer on 10th November 2022.

Watch the trailer for The English here:

https://youtu.be/6ocyF_Iuj7U

More in Shows

Havoc

Mae Trumata

Until Dawn

Mae Trumata

The Friend

Christina Yang

“These are really crazy circumstances and we wanted to make sure that the audience felt bought in”: Michael Cimino and Ella Rubin on Until Dawn

Mae Trumata

Netflix sets global premiere date for crime drama Dept Q, starring Matthew Goode and written by Scott Frank

The editorial unit

I Know What You Did Last Summer returns to UK cinemas with original stars and new cast this July

The editorial unit

Swimming Home

Antonia Georgiou

Cannes Film Festival unveils dual poster honouring A Man and a Woman for 78th Edition

The editorial unit

“It was definitely next level”: Ben Affleck and cast on The Accountant 2

Christina Yang