Renegade (2004)

Synopsis: RENEGADE is an ambitious hybrid of genres that occupies a liminal space similar to that of its main character, Mike Blueberry (Vincent Cassel). Building on the conventions of the Western and adding psychedelic elements and the sophisticated - albeit atypical - European sensibilities of... RENEGADE is an ambitious hybrid of genres that occupies a liminal space similar to that of its main character, Mike Blueberry (Vincent Cassel). Building on the conventions of the Western and adding psychedelic elements and the sophisticated - albeit atypical - European sensibilities of director Jan Kounen, the result is a fascinating and compelling existential film about self-definition and the untapped regions of the mind. The film opens with a teenage Blueberry (Hugh O'Conor), a recent transplant to the southwest from the Cajun territory of Louisiana. He quickly becomes embroiled in a battle with local bad guy Wallace Sebastian Blount (Michael Madsen) when Blount gets violent during a visit to prostitute Madeleine, for whom Mike has fallen. Madeleine is killed in the fray, and the injured Mike is run out of town, surviving due only to the kindness of the Indians who find him and take him in. Years later Blueberry, now played by Cassel, has rejoined the white folks to become a town marshal, but when Wallace, who had been presumed dead, blows into town, Mike is forced to face up to some demons from his past. Wallace is accompanied by mysterious Prussian Prosit (Eddie Izzard), who has equipped him with magical powers, and together with the uber-wealthy Sullivan (Geoffrey Lewis, whose daughter Marie is played by real-life daughter Juliette Lewis), they are plotting to steal some valuables from the Indians residing in the mountains nearby. Mike undertakes to foil their plan, aided by his shaman "brother" Runi, who administers wisdom to Blueberry via some of the most intense, eerie CG sequences ever committed to film. [More]