Perhaps the oldest Frontier Partisans tale of them all is unfolding on screen this month.
An Alpine backpacker later named Ötzi was stalked and killed by an arrow in the Italian Alps more than 5,000 years ago. His assailant: unknown. Motive: undetermined (though intact kit tends to rule out robbery). Ötzi may have been the victim of a mountain feud. Not the first, and certainly not the last.
German filmmaker Felix Randau’s has turned this real-deal anthropological mystery into a thriller Iceman. The LA Times says it’s…
“…a recognizable B western sharpened as much by its glints of psychology as by its kinetic savagery.”
That’s not meant to be much of an endorsement, but it rings the Frontier Partisans gong.
Matthew says
It says a lot about humanity that one of our earliest remains was that of a murder victim. Reminds me of that epigraph in Blood Meridian about the ancient skull that showed signs of scalping.
JimC says
Yep. Cain and Abel. (Kane?)
Dmac says
I think my brother is in that.
JimC says
Hah! Right?
Aaron says
Ice man with Timothy Hutton
lane batot says
THAT’S what I was thinking! But that Iceman was supposed to be a Neanderthal. An okay(but SAD!) movie, I thought. I’ll havta wait till this one becomes a cheapo, hopefully Region 1 DVD–as I WOULD like to see it, having kept up with “Otzi” since his discovery, lo, those many years ago. Amazing all the things he’s taught us about his times…..
Jean says
I’ve followed him since he was discovered too. Nova did a wonderful show about how they built the duplicate body for study. I’m afraid that this movie may be too much Hollywood and not enough archaeology for me.
Fletcher A Vredenburgh says
Kinetic savagery, huh. Guess I need to see it.
Jim Callow says
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!