... a simple human story with the archetypal power of Greek myth. It feels like an American classic.
Comment
12/14/07
Rate this Movie 
Shotgun Stories (2007)
93
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:37
Rotten:3
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Thanks to a talented cast and its uncommon depth, Nichols' debut manages to rise above its overly familiar plot.
Theatrical Release:Mar 26, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: Son Hayes never speaks of the scars on his back. The shotgun pellets left under his skin make for a sporadic pattern of blue-black dots. The men he works with take bets on how he got them. His...
This stands true for the memory of his father, a man that never bothered to give his children proper names. He left the three brothers, Son, Boy and Kid, when they were young. Their last impressions were of a violent drunk who never hesitated to put his own needs ahead of his family. The brothers were left to be raised by their mother, a hateful woman, who to this day blames her children for the life she's been left with and the man she could not keep.
Their father, having left the memory of his children as completely as he left their home, managed to move on and put his life back together. He sobered up, became a devout Christian, married a wonderful woman, and fathered four new sons. All of who received proper names. His life became a model that most would aspire to, a man successful in business, community and family. His only true failing being the sons he turned his back on.
At the beginning of the film, we find Son, Boy and Kid as grown men. The three brothers' lives progress and their futures play out, but their past inevitably comes to claim them. Following a dispute at their father's funeral, a feud begins to simmer between these sons and the new young men their father has raised. It is an anger that has always rested uncomfortably in the background of their lives. However now, it is a thing that will rise up to overtake them all. Set against the cotton fields and back roads of Southeast Arkansas, these brothers discover the lengths to which each will go to protect their family.
--© Official Site [More]Starring: Michael Shannon, Douglas Ligon, Barlow Jacobs, Natalie Canerday
Director: Jeff Nichols
Get This Movie
Reviews for Shotgun Stories
Well-plotted, with a strong lead performance by Michael Shannon, and a fair amount of authentic regional flavor. It isn't really meant to be a treatise on Southern life. At heart, it's a country-fried genre film, minus the peppery white gravy.
04/03/08
Breathtaking and stands out from the herd.
02/29/08
... here there's also an undercurrent of biblical revenge that lends the narrative a sense of violent menace and an almost continuous tension.
06/06/08
Few films are so observant about how we relate with one another. Few are as sympathetic.
06/06/08
Top CriticDirector Jeff Nichols lets the action unfold slowly following an impromptu insult, but the escalation of hatred and pain feels natural.
07/09/08
No question, it's a humorless downer, but also an impressive character study, with depth proportionate to the tragic nature of its theme.
04/09/08
Shotgun Stories is, at heart, a film about people who discover what they have to let go of, and who confront the terrifying possibility of hope.
02/23/08
The real key to the film is the commanding Michael Shannon.
08/05/08
This promising debut feature is remarkable for its use of inaction, the threats, standoffs, aborted shoving matches, but very little actual violence.
04/03/08
Tyro writer-director Jeff Nichols shows promise in his striking feature debut, a haunting saga about rage, revenge, and violence in one peculiar family, that does regional independent cinema proud.
03/26/08
An interesting first effort from Nichols -- making him a director to look out for in the future.
04/11/08
I'm sick of the kind of exceptional that Shotgun Stories represents.
09/02/08
There's no escaping the fact that the film, well-crafted though it may be, is ultimately just as slow as the proverbial molasses.
03/26/08
Set in rural Arkansas, Jeff Nichols' relaxed, distinctive debut revels in the milieu of its redneck characters, but injects their rural half-blood feud with an almost mythic quality.
10/18/08
Never manages to be fully convincing.
03/28/08
Jeff Nichols modern Western is laconic and lazily captivating, its silence slowly building to rage.
05/15/08
There is much to "Shotgun Stories" that elevates it above the fray of Green derivatives and unflattering categorizations, bolstered by a roster of naturalistic, fully assimilated performances, led by "Bug"'s now ubiquitous Michael Shannon.
08/08/09
This low-key yarn about lowbrow men isn’t for everyone. But whatever its faults and limitations, Shotgun Stories casts a spell unlike any other movie we’ve seen in ages.
06/20/08
Like Malick, Nichols knows that the sight of a combine transforming an Arkansas cotton field into an apocalyptic dust storm is as eloquent as anything his characters might say.
11/26/08
Latest News for Shotgun Stories
March 25, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
More...
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
Best Sci-Fi This Decade
Techland lists the best Sci-Fi films of this decade.
40 Worst Films of the 2000s
Moviefone takes a look back at the biggest stinkers of the past 10 years.
10 Questions For Zac Efron
The Me and Orson Welles star answers reader questions on TIME.com.
Best Decade Ever!
Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill offers his thoughts on what the best decade for film was.
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure
In the AV Club's "Scenic Routes," Mike D'Angelo reminisces about the Tim Burton film.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
IGN RSS Feeds