Renegade (2004)

In 1870, after a brutal run-in with an outlaw in a brothel, Mike Blueberry becomes marshal in Arizona where he keeps the peace between Whites and Apaches but an influx of Indian gold treasure-hunters threatens to lead to violence.

Director:

Jan Kounen

Writers:

Matthieu Le Naour (screenplay) (as Matt Alexander), Alexandre Coquelle (screenplay) (as Matt Alexander)

Stars:

Vincent Cassel, Michael Madsen, Juliette Lewis

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Vincent Cassel	...	Mike Blueberry
Juliette Lewis	...	Maria Sullivan
Michael Madsen	...	Wallace Sebastian Blount
Temuera Morrison	...	Runi
Ernest Borgnine	...	Rolling Star
Djimon Hounsou	...	Woodhead
Hugh O'Conor	...	Young Mike Blueberry
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Greg Sullivan
Nichole Hiltz	...	Lola (as Nicole Hiltz)
Kateri Walker	...	Kateri
Vahina Giocante	...	Madeleine
Guillermo Arévalo	...	Kheetseen (as Kestenbetsa)
Tchéky Karyo	...	Uncle
Eddie Izzard	...	Prosit
Colm Meaney	...	Jimmy McClure

Storyline

Alledged wayward adolescent Louisiana gentleman Michael 'Mike' Blueberry is dumped by his family with a Wild West uncle. The brute's only 'motivation' is a stick. After a nearly fatal encounter in the brothel with Wallace 'Wally' Sebastian Blount, Mike is left for dead in the desert. A Chiricuahua (Apache) medicine man's family finds, nurses and initiates him. After the shaman's death, Mike returns and becomes the town's honest 'deputy' marshal. Gold fever strikes, with staged Indian brutalities to allow rivaling fiends to invade their sacred mountains.

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Plot Keywords:

leg spreading | bare chested male | female nudity | female frontal nudity | character name as title | 

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Taglines:

The devil you know.

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Genres:

Adventure | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, sexuality, nudity and drug content

Details

Country:

France Mexico UK

Language:

English Athapascan languages German French Spanish Apache languages

Release Date:

11 February 2004 (France)

Also Known As:

Renegade

Filming Locations:

Sierra de Organos, Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

€36,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$2,191,094 (France), 13 February 2004

Company Credits

Production Co:

A.J.O.Z. Films, La Petite Reine, Union Générale Cinématographique (UGC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Milla Jovovich was the first choice for the role of Maria but turned it down because of scheduling conflicts.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Blueberry: He's... dead. And now it's my turn. I am leaving... this world. I'm leaving... my memories. I see...

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Crazy Credits

At the beginning of the end credits it says 'A Jan Kounen Session' instead of 'A Jan Kounen Film'.

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Connections

Referenced in Eddie Izzard: Sexie (2003)

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Soundtracks

Danny Boy
by Frederick Edward Weatherly
Performed by Juliette Lewis

User Reviews

It's a Blueberry – not a raspberry.

Here's a trick you can try right now. For an immediate sneak-preview of Blueberry's peyote-soaked finale, scrunch the ball of your palms firmly into your eye sockets. The ensuing geometric light show is but a fraction of what's on offer in this loose adaptation of Jean 'Moebius' Giraud's comic strip. In the 1870s, wild-child Mike Blueberry (Cassel) is adopted by Chiracahua Indians and, Carlos Castaneda-style, initiated into their shamanic rituals. Later, as a small-town sheriff, he encounters an old nemesis, the mysterious Wally Blount (Madsen), on the hunt for hidden Indian 'gold', climaxing in an all-out, psychedelic showdown. Suffice to say, the treasure Blount seeks isn't of the bankable variety (but it glimmers all the same). Blueberry's pretty unique; its closest cousin is probably that other 'existentialist Western' El Topo. And like Jodorowsky's movie, it's mesmerising at best, unfocused and pretentious at worst. There's some gorgeous cinematography here, while the astonishing CGI-rendered visions (featuring multi-tentacled hydras and other entheogenic plant spirits commonly reported from such trips) not only make 2001's 'Star Gate' sequence look like a walk in the park, but have also been authenticated and approved by real-life South American shamans. That's partly the problem: director Kounen spent a long time researching among the shamans, and Blueberry does betray the conviction of the newly converted at the narrative's expense; the cast (including Eddie Izzard cameoing as a Prussian mercenary) often seem slightly bemused themselves. A failure, then, but a noble and courageous one.