Film Review: Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)

Rutger Hauer (The Hitcher, Blade Runner) stars as the titular grizzled old hobo who acquires a shotgun. Do you really need more information than that to know if you want to see this film?

When the hobo hops off the freight train in a new city, he is shocked by what he sees. People are getting away with rape, murder, violence, theft, and mayhem all day without any punishment. One particularly sadistic man, Drake (Brian Downey), and his two sons, Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman), seem to run this crime town. The hobo begins to follow them around after witnessing a brutal decapitation that people were encouraged to applaud. Can a lawless man restore order to a criminal city?

Hobo with a Shotgun is a whole lot better than it has any right to be. This is the kind of film that people will watch just to see the violence and mayhem that ensues. If they throw enough blood on the screen, the target audience will watch. Director Jason Eisner and writer John Davies elevate this picture to something any real film fan can enjoy.

For one thing, there is actual character development. We feel sympathetic for the hobo because he earns our sympathy with his actions and words. The damsel in distress is not just a shirking violet and the villains'"though sadistic'"are meatier than your normal Grindhouse-styled feature. Even smaller characters, like a receptionist at the hospital, seem to have actual depth and motivations for their actions. It's refreshing to see actual characters in a film like this.

The cinematography is beautiful. Karim Hussain washes every scene in a variety of filters to create the neon hues of light up signs. I was especially impressed by the filming inside of the buildings. One apartment is cast in a mix of red, pink, and blue that adds an incredible level of visual interest to a very static scene. When the action is really moving, the colors are still bright but less varied. One scene might be all yellow; the next, all green. Yet it flows together because of the saturation of the filter and obvious digital editing in post to create the consistent colors. It means that this is a shockingly beautiful film.

The make-up effects are fantastic. The entire team does everything from make the homeless look ill, tired, and worn out to torching human flesh to ripping off limbs in a believable way. It's grotesque but not gratuitous. They knew the exact point at which to cut off the blood flow to get just the right effect. For a revenge film about a homeless guy with a shotgun, it's surprisingly restrained.

If you can get past the violence, Hobo with a Shotgun is a really great film. It's engaging, well-produced, and justifies its more slapstick moments with an actual story and characters. It's darkly humorous and shocking in the best way possible.