Summary
Proving that good things sometimes do come in small packages, Pedro Almodóvar’s queer Western short film has compact storytelling that speaks volumes.
So, you’re Pedro Almodóvar. One of the most highly regarded filmmakers in the world. You’ve just won multiple awards for the magnificent Pain and Glory and the critically acclaimed Parallel Mothers. You’re prepping your first English language feature film, an adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women starring Cate Blanchett. Naturally your next step is a short film, a queer western with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal.
Unsurprisingly, it’s a perfect fit. From the opening frame, as we watch a lone rider making his way across a hilltop, we instantly recall some of the so-called spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. Like Sergio Leone’s films, Almodóvar shot STRANGE WAY OF LIFE (or Extraña forma de vida) in the Tabernas Desert of Spain. It departs that model almost immediately as the strains of the titular song, a famous fado by Amalia Rodrigues, come from an unnamed singer (played by Manu Ríos).
Almodóvar’s second English language short, following The Human Voice (2020) with Tilda Swinton, takes place sometime in the ‘wild west’ in the town of Bitter Creek. Sheriff Jake (Hawke) has not seen Silva (Pascal) in 25 years, since they last worked together as hired guns. Their reunion immediately triggers old amorous feelings.
Yet the next morning it is apparent Silva is there to do more than catch up with his old flame. Silva’s son has been accused of a crime, and Jake has made it clear that he will do his duty regardless of his affection or history with Silva.
Clocking in at around 30 minutes, Almodóvar’s film falls into three distinct segments. There is an impassioned conversation between Hawke and Pascal, one that starts with “Don’t look at me that way” and ends with “You never loved me. You just liked to fuck.” Here the leads show incredible restraint, each of them having a veiled conversation that the audience might only hear from the surface.
During that sequence, we get hints at their past, something that we see in a more explicit flashback sequence. With José Condessa and Jason Fernández playing the younger Silva and Jake respectively, we see that their previously mentioned escapade — described earlier as being a romp with women and red wine — mostly involves a burst wineskin and a whole lot of each other. It touches on a longer story that remains untold, and its explicitness is in stark contrast with the subtler Hawke and Pascal portrayals.
As we see in arguments, the only way the older Silva and Jake can express passion is now (partly) from the barrel of a gun. The climax is a classic stand-off, built on all of the tension that has been brewing until this point. It’s here that the score, from regular Almodóvar collaborator Alberto Iglesias, swells to the fore and elevates this compact story into something larger than life.
STRANGE WAY OF LIFE has all the setup necessary for a feature, or even a whole series. That Almodóvar has confined this to a short speaks volumes. It would also be very easy to start comparing this to Brokeback Mountain, although it and 2021’s The Power of the Dog merely demonstrated that westerns have long had a homoerotic element to them. Still, Almodóvar seems to consciously answer Ang Lee’s film via Silva, who provides a simple response to how two cowboys could pass the time together. “They can look after each other, protect each other, and keep each other company.”
2023 | Spain | DIRECTOR: Pedro Almodóvar | WRITER: Pedro Almodóvar | CAST: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, José Condessa, Jason Fernández, Pedro Casablanc | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2023 | RUNNING TIME: 31 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7-18 June 2023 (SFF 2023)
