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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 36745
Released: April 15, 2008 |
| Our Price: $5.15 |
| Used Price: $0.34 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Summer 1978: two couples decide to spend the summer in a remote vacation house in the north of Spain. Hidden away in the middle of a forest, and very much off the beaten track, the house seems ideal for some peaceful holidays. While out hunting, the two men come across an abandoned house and discover a deformed, animalistic girl chained inside. They bring her back to the house, intending to take her to the authorities. Tension with the rural locals heightens when they come looking for the girl armed with shotguns...
The Backwoods Reviews:
Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine in So-so Spanish Thriller 
2008-08-16 - "The Backwoods" (original title "Bosque de sombras") follow the story of two married couples holidaying in Spain and their nightmarish experiences. One couple is played by Gary Oldman and Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and the other by Paddy Considine and Virginie Ledoyen. I don't know why, but the time is set in the 1970s. Perhaps they wanted to call up the memories of two masterpieces made in the 70s: "Straw Dogs" and "Deliverance."
In fact, Paddy Considine's mild-mannered character Norman might remind us of Dustin Hoffmann's hero in the Sam Peckinpah classic. Two male characters Norman and Oldman's Paul, who has an assertive personality, travel to the "backwoods" in Spain with their wives for a summer holiday only to get involved with conflict with the locals after finding a little girl imprisoned in a shack.
If you look at the DVD jacket of the film, you will find the filmmakers are using the face and name of Gary Oldman to attract potential viewers. It is understandable. As you know, he is an excellent actor, whose charismatic performance alone is always worth the money you pay. But I must say that in "The Backwoods" the task of carrying the whole story to the end is not given to the character Oldman plays. You wish you could see more of his acting, which is not his best, it is certain, but surely his presence could have raised the tension of the film a little higher than it is.
In fact "The Backwoods" takes too much time to build up the tension it really needs. The film's pace gets faster in the second, but it never delivers the goods it promised at the beginning of the story. It tries to tell its story with a psychological depth, but female characters are bland, almost like ciphers, and as to the male ones the character development looks too sudden, which needs more insight.
"The Backwoods" is directed by Spanish-born Koldo Serra. Like many recent Spanish-made thrillers, the cinematography is very atmospheric. Actually, each scene is shot professionally; violence erupts at times and ugliness of human nature is shown, but "The Backwoods" does not really thrill or surprise us with raw energy or depth that this kind of film needs.
It is not that "The Backwoods" is awful. It is just that the film needs some distinctive style that sets that apart from others.
Flawed but entertaining throughout 
2008-07-14 - If you enjoyed films like 'Deliverance (inbred hillbilly folk hunting down tourists)' and/or 'Straw Dogs (wimpy man tired of being pushed around finally learns to grow a pair and protects his woman)' then 'The Backwoods' is right up your alley in delivering a stylized 1970s-esque action thriller set in the Basque hills of Spain. Keep in mind that this film isn't meant to cater to the Euro art house cinema crowd. This flick is a slice of pure, B-grade genre kettlecorn that would actually fit in quite nicely as part of a Tarantino Grindhouse double feature.
Also of note - this disc has ZERO extras save for a handful of LionsGate trailers. The 5.1 mix is surprisingly robust. Video transfer quality gets a 7/10 from me. Definitely give this film a rental - at the very least!
not bad but... 
2008-06-05 - The summary gives an accurate account of the story, so I won't get into it :)
Gary Oldman just looks way old in this film (like 80-90 years old, but he's not of course), the make-up artists didn't do much good for him! Considine's character is the only one that makes any sense and his instincts should be trusted; however, if they were, there wouldn't be a film...
Ledoyen's acting (or no-acting) is bad. The fact that the film pictures submissive women is annoying and bothering.
I honestly can't find anything that makes this film worth watching.
Don't Play In The Woods!! 
2008-05-25 - I admit it. I'm a sucker for a Gary Oldman flick. Just show me his name on the screen and I'm there, ready and willing. Gary Oldman is the bomb. But more importantly, he takes chances and that's exactly what he did with this film.
THE BACKWOODS takes place in Northern Spain in 1978. Two couples are vacationing together, each in different stages of their marriage. The realism between Norman and Lucy is raw, there are moments I wanted to look away, the intimacy, the pain felt so real. The characters are fleshed out excellently before the "real" pain begins.
Norman and Paul go on a misguided hunting trip in the woods and stumble on a seemingly abandoned house with a horrible secret. Locked away inside is a feral child chained and in rags. The child has deformities and has suffered tremendously, judging by her reaction to the men.
Rather than leave her there to possible starve, since there wasn't any food in the shack, Paul decides to take her back with them. He reasons with Norman that they can feed her, clean her up and then take her to the police.
And perhaps Paul's plan would have worked, except for the group of violent Spanish heathens who show up on his doorstep, determined to take back possession of their property. When the inevitable clash occurs, ill-fated choices are made, sad attempts at redemption and the grudging respect between two enemies.
But even more surprising is the character development of Norman, the layers that strip away till the naked core is bloody and bruised.
THE BACKWOODS won't be everyone's cup of tea. Everything isn't nice and neatly wrapped up at the end. I have to admit, the ending was a bit shocking for me, something I didn't see coming. But the film delivers. The atmosphere, the moodiness, the beautiful scenery, meaty characters that you can relate to, all this makes THE BACKWOODS a superior film experience.
If you're wanting to veg out,rest your brain and not think, then this isn't your film. However if you want something to haunt your dreams and quite possibly your waking hours as well, THE BACKWOODS is the one. Come on, let's play in the woods.
Gary, Gary, what were you thinking? 
2008-04-24 - I admit, I rented this because I saw Gary Oldman's picture on the disc cover, but what a disappointment. What were you thinking, Gary? His acting, as always, was wonderful, however, the storyline/script was horrid and a waste of his ability and time. I was greatly disappointed, and was only able to give it more than one star because of Gary's performance.
