LONDON: Before the likes of Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington gave the action genre a much-needed shot in the arm with films such as “Taken” and “The Equalizer,” it’s hard to imagine there would have been much appetite for “Earth and Blood” (“La Terre et le Sang”) outside of director Julien Leclercq’s home country of France. Which would be a shame because, much like Leclercq’s 2015 crime thriller “The Crew” (“Braqueurs”), “Earth and Blood” is a slickly shot, smartly assembled action flick that roars along at breakneck pace.
In “Earth and Blood”, the part of the world-weary antagonist reluctantly forced into a violent showdown is filled by regular Leclercq collaborator Sami Bouajila, who plays sawmill owner Saïd. Recently diagnosed with cancer, Saïd finds his business and family under threat when one of his employees, Yanis (played with wide-eyed earnestness by Samy Seghir), gets tangled up with a vicious drug lord. As the bad guys descend on the sawmill, Saïd has no choice but to defend his property using grit, determination, and an array of lethal industrial machinery.
Technically, the film is gripping. Leclercq clearly has an eye for mise en scène, and some of the artfully framed standoffs evoke classic Westerns, building the tension before bullets begin to fly. But to get the best out of “Earth and Blood” viewers will not only need to suspend their disbelief, but disregard it altogether. The film’s premise could be undermined at any point by a little common sense on the part of any of its characters, and it soon becomes clear that the narrative exists solely as an excuse for the elaborate set pieces, rather than as the driving force behind them.
In fact, by the final act of the (thankfully) short film, it seems Leclercq has run out of ways to tie up the loose ends, and the concluding showdown feels a little anticlimactic. There are the seeds of an interesting thriller here, with characters boasting backstories that deserve more exploration. Sadly, “Earth and Blood” runs out of steam by the time the credits roll, leaving a sense that this film could have been much more.
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