Michael Douglas serves up an enjoyably villainous performance for this survival thriller in the classic 70s style of Deliverance and Duel, based on the 1972 novel Deathwatch by Robb White. It’s certainly tense, with some nice touches, though with plausibility issues and an odd, unnecessary coda. Douglas plays Madec, a rich and thoroughly obnoxious asshole who’s come to the Mojave desert basin for some hunting, driving a flashy Mercedes SUV and using a customised Austrian hunting rifle. For a guide, he hires Ben (played by Jeremy Irvine), a young local guy with excellent knowledge of the terrain. But while out there in the burning heat there is a terrible incident caused by Madec’s arrogant irresponsibility; Ben refuses to cover up for him and so he himself becomes quarry for the sinister and vengeful Madec as the long day continues – with plenty of traditional lens-flare shots up into the desert sky and the dazzling noonday sun. Our grizzled and leonine anti-hero has some amusing traits, such as fixing himself a dry Martini in an idle moment, using his special luxury in-car fridge. His purely psychopathic motivation could perhaps, however, have been more interestingly established, and what Ben is able to use in the desert for survival strains credibility. It’s a watchable, dry-as-dust contemporary Western.
