A
River Of Skulls (2010/Lionsgate DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: C+
After
the death of her mother, everything goes wrong for Eula (Kelly
Nixon), her family is split up and she is forced to make a living on
her own, but making a life for a girl isn't so easy on the frontier
and in the middle of a gold rush. She soon finds out all her
employers want to use her, and all the men just want to abuse her in
Suza Lambert Bowser's A
River Of Skulls
(2010).
Eula
was a happy girl, that was up until her mother got sick and died.
Her father became a drunkard, and sent her younger brother and sister
to live their uncle and her to the workhouse. There, her employers
literally treat her as a slave and work her to the bone, but then she
loses her last shred of dignity when young heir who promised to marry
her. Instead, he just knocks her up and married someone else.
Afterwards, her baby was secretly switched by her employer with her
sister's dead baby and she is forced to become a prostitute. Only
after falling from grace her real friends rescue her and make her
realize that life is more than money or marriage to the rich, but
friends and relationship.
This
was a western tragedy, where a young female is treated more like an
object than a person. The moral of the film seems to be that all
rich people will cheat and abuse you and no good deed goes
unpunished, but then it justifies shooting the rich people
afterwards.
The
anamorphically enhanced image is softer than it should be, as is the
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, combining to make this more difficult to
enjoy than expected. Extras include making of the film, gallery and
trailer.
-
Ricky Chiang
