LogFAQs > #957437745

#9. Prospect 87 points (won tiebreaker over True Grit 2010)

Stifled 3
CoolCly 6
Karo 7
Pokewars 13
Johnbobb 15
KBM 18
Inviso 25

Very poor plot synopsis:
After getting his face crushed by The Mountain, Oberyn Martell found himself stranded on a strange planet.

Why it was included:
Ive often heard Star Wars referred to as a space western. And this makes sense, as westerns and Star Wars both drew heavy inspiration from samurai movies. But the fact is, Star Wars is not officially classified as a western. But you know what is? Prospect! And do you know who stars in Prospect? The Mandalorian! It all comes full circle! I was so thrilled to be able to add a sci-fi western to this list. Its actually kind of a miracle I stumbled upon this lovely little film because it had a very low-key release. It hit the film festival scene first, and was then exclusive to Regal Cinemas. Around four months later, it was already available for purchase to watch at home. With a tiny budget and tiny box office numbers, it was basically word of mouth and high praise from critics that helped circulate it upon home release. Perhaps like many of the others on the list, time will build a stronger reputation for Prospect. But for now, its a nice indie flick we found.

What Stifled thinks:
Since I was a teenager, I loved the anime Trigun. If you arent familiar with Trigun, its a sci-fi western and its amazing. But as it happens, unless you want to cheat and classify things in the Star Wars universe as space westerns, there really isnt much to work with. But then I found Prospect. And let me tell you, I absolutely love this movie. Its kind of hard to describe, but Prospect manages to blend the sci-fi and western genres together so well that neither side of the coin feels forced or out of place. I constantly felt the western aesthetic while all of the sci-fi tech was being used. Quite frankly, thats amazing for anyone to pull off, much less a director with a budget of four million dollars.

The acting is great too, despite focusing mostly on two characters. The film makes you think the father/daughter duo are going to be the focus, but the father gets taken out fairly early, leaving the daughter to be stuck with one of his killers. Two people reluctantly working together to survive is nothing new, but having to do so on a weird planet with weird primitive rapey people and weird fauna is something unique. The daughter finds herself going from despising ol Pedro Pascal to eventually accepting him as a new father figure of sorts. Coming of age? Family is who you choose? Giving up a life of crime and finding your heart? Prospect gives us all of that and more. It was even more than I was expecting and my expectations were HIGH going in. What a wonderful movie.
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Bear Bro
The Empire of Silence