The English: the Old West comes to life thanks to a vengeful Emily Blunt

It is a somewhat anomalous western epic that told by The English, the new miniseries created by the pen of Hugo Blick who, after The Honorable Woman And Black Earth Rising, goes back behind the camera to tell a story that smells of the Old West, but filled with a frosted humanity capable of making a difference. The series, which debuted on BBC Two before landing on Prime Video, is set in 1890 when an English noblewoman named Cornelia Locke arrives loaded with suitcases and refined bodices with a single purpose: avenge the death of his son. The Englishin fact, it is a product that makes us understand right from the start that appearances sometimes deceive, a lesson that we learn precisely from the beautiful protagonist played brilliantly by Emily Blunt who now seems to embody the sweetness and naivety of the female figures of the cinema of the Eighties and is now preparing to take up the rifle, proving to be a skilled rider.

In the midst of the woman’s revenge proposal there are, as often happens in Blick’s imagination, dozens of other themes ranging from cultural contamination to a bitter reflection on colonialism, offering the viewer a rather bleak and feral picture of the atrocities committed by the white community for the conquest of a land that still today, decades later, is stained with the blood of the natives who inhabited it. In this scenario dominated by the law of the strongest, the character of Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer) is particularly interesting., a US Army veteran born in Pawnee who, in the course of his service to the country, was often forced to point weapons at other indigenous people. Whites regard him as a native, while natives look at him as white, making the viewer understand how difficult it is to frame someone when he escapes the niches we try so hard to fight.

Needless to say The English starts when Cornelia’s road crosses with Eli’s: she seeks revenge, he just wants to claim a piece of land that is due to him, even if everyone he meets warns him that the whites won’t let him. Their journey together is perhaps the most interesting thing about a miniseries that starts well even though it often gets stuck in the central part, when too many threats appear a little everywhere – like Mr. Watts played by Ciaran Hinds – which weigh down the story. The ending, however, resumes great, underlining the talent of Hugo Bick in creating a microcosm embellished by talented actors such as Toby Jones and Steven Rea and by various quotes and tributes ranging from Ford to Eastwood, from Roeg to a pinch of Dario Argento. Arnau Valls Colomer’s photography and the sometimes grotesque and bizarre story that emerges from the episodes represent the real strengths of The English, a love letter to indigenous cultures and a non-trivial reflection on a colonized country with little respect and compassion towards the people who lived there.