Butler's Cinema Scene

Michael Douglas…hunting big game

“BEYOND THE REACH” My rating: B- 

95 minutes | MPAA rating: R

Our worst suspicions about the One Percent are realized in “Beyond the Reach,” an outdoor thriller with Michael Douglas doing a murderous variation on his Oscar-winning Gordon Gekko character from “Wall Street.”

Douglas plays John Madec, a ridiculously wealthy and probably sociopathic master of industry who shows up in a small burg on the edge of the Mojave Desert  looking for a hunting guide. After 10 years Madec has finally gotten a rare government license to bag a Bighorn sheep, the one animal whose head is missing from his trophy wall.

The local sheriff (Ronny Cox) suggests he hire Ben (Jeremy Irvine), barely out of his teens but an expert guide and tracker thanks to the outdoor education provided by his late parents.  Ben is immediately put off by Madec’s crude cockiness, but he can’t turn down the $1,000-a-day pay.

Once in the vast barren landscape of blistered flatlands and sweeping mesas (the film was shot in the Four Corners area), things quickly go wrong. Madec gets his kill…only it isn’t a sheep.

Ion the midst of a huge business deal conducted over a satellite phone, Madec cannot afford the bad publicity the incident will surely generate (though didn’t Dick Cheney survive a similar mishap?)  His scheme is to blackmail Ben for the death — and to make sure there are no loose ends he forces his young companion to disrobe and start walking across the desert.

Jeremy Irving

Eventually the kid will succumb to heat, thirst and exhaustion, right?

Madec follows at a distance in his monstrous-big Mercedes, a six-wheel behemoth (“The only one in America”) outfitted with floodlights, microwave oven, wet bar and other homey comforts.

And he uses the car’s P.A. system to taunt his prey.

Irvine (the young British star of Spielberg’s “War Horse”) gives an almost wordless performance as the desperate Ben, who relies on his desert savvy to stay in play.

Douglas is perfectly hateful as Madec, a man who has found that money can buy absolutely anything (his fortune puts him beyond the reach of conventional mores).

The basic setup of Stephen Susco’s screenplay is contrived, but once things get rolling  the direction by Jean-Baptiste Leonetti generates plenty of suspense.

And the widescreen cinematography by Russell Carpenter (“Titanic”) takes full advantage of the spectacular scenery of the Navajo Nation.

| Robert W. Butler