STRANGE WAY OF LIFE
Spain, 2023, 31 minutes, Colour.
Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal, Mona Rios, George Steane.
Directed by Pedro Almodovar.
Fans of Pedro Almodovar and audiences around the world would not have been expecting a Western from him. But, here it is, beautifully filmed in Spanish locations reminiscent of the spaghetti westerns, the recreation of the town, the sheriff and his duty, the pursuit of the killer and three guns confrontation. It was written in English, the second English language short film from Almodovar, the first being The Human Voice with Tilda Swinton. He then went on to make the full-length feature in English, The Room Next Door, with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.
Almodovar’s own view of his film: A queer Western, in the sense that there are two men and they love each other. It's about masculinity in a deep sense because the Western is a male genre. What I can tell you about the film is that it has a lot of the elements of the Western. It has the gunslinger, it has the ranch, it has the sheriff, but what it has that most Westerns don't have is the kind of dialogue that I don't think a Western film has ever captured between two men.
Film opens with a mood setting: The title is inspired by the Portuguese poem song by Amália Rodrigues called "Estranha forma de vida" (Strange Way of Life), released in 1959 and sung by Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso and lip-synced by actor Manu Ríos at the beginning of this short film.
The film boasts two strong leads with Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, Pedro Pascal riding into town to confront the sheriff and to save his son who has been accused of the murder of the sheriff’s sister-in-law, a woman with a bad reputation. Ethan Hawke is the sheriff.
The film has, as Almodovar indicated, quite a number of themes.
There is the variation on the western themes, the past gunfighters becoming respectable, working on the land or becoming law enforcers. In fact, the two have not met for 25 years, giving up their gunfighter past, Silver opting for the land, Jake for the law.
Then there is the issue of sexuality and sexual relationships, the flashback to the two young men in years gone by, with a number of señoritas, but then finding the attraction strong between the two of them. And Jake, breaking off the relationship. The impact of the two meeting again, Jake wary, Silver earnest, and their spending the night together and its consequences.
However, Jake is taking the law seriously, Silver leaving to go to his sons Homestead and warn him away, and Jake in pursuit.
There is the theme of the father trying to protect his son while angry and disgusted with him, giving him the chance to escape to Mexico and never come back. This involves wounding Jake but then attending him for his recovery.
In the final theme, Jake angry but convalescing, Silver reminiscing on the final words to give meaning to the film, that they could have spent a life together, especially with caring for each other.
