Is The Nightingale the first film with press notes that include trigger warnings? Jennifer Kent’s revenge movie more or less checks each box (murder, rape, infanticide), its 137 minutes filled with horrifying violence and degradation. Indeed, there have even been trigger warnings for some audiences at the cinema. But can something so violent have artistic merit?
The story sounds like the set-up of any revenge narrative. It’s Australia, circa 1825. The British have a tight grip on the island, and Kent is intent on making us understand the full brunt of the many horrors of colonialism. Though not a ghost story like Kent’s prior movie, The Babadook, The Nightingale is even more disturbing because everything we see on the screen has been, and continues to be, perpetrated by humans against other humans.
The movie opens in Tasmania where a young Irish convict, Clare (Aisling Franciosi) must work to receive her freedom. Clare, along with her husband and baby, are at the mercy of the cruel Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), an ambitious officer who brutalizes her to help pass the time while withholding her freedom past its due. After a brutal prologue that shows Hawkins and two other soldiers robbing Clare of her family and dignity, she sets out to murder them, an impromptu avenging angel with nothing to lose.
If The Nightingale doesn’t lose you in its extended opening, you will likely make it through the rest of its runtime. As the soldiers travel across Tasmania, Clare and a young Aboriginal man guide named Billy (Baykali Ganambarr) follow in hot pursuit, witnessing the swath of murder the soldiers have left in their wake. By adding Billy to the story, Kent adds a layer of tenderness. Initially distrustful of one another, Clare and Billy eventually form a tight bond. Billy has also been hurt by the British and as he learns of the true purpose of Clare’s mission, he agrees to help her exact her revenge.
Kent also gives plenty of screen time to Hawkins and his henchmen, allowing us to learn about the uncertainties and concerns that allows them to justify their monstrous behavior. However, Kent does not ease off the grimoire of horrors in the film’s middle section. Hawkins and his men rape and murder basically anyone who isn’t a white male that crosses their path. As nationalism rears its head again in the United States, The Nightingale stews in white anxiety and the lengths that some will take to preserve the current hierarchy.
So what separates The Nightingale from something like Kill Bill or I Spit on Your Grave? Unlike the Tarantino film, Kent isn’t creating a fantasia where violence can prompt laughter. This is a very grim movie yet, unlike I Spit on Your Grave, it doesn’t feel exploitative. When Grace and Billy finally catch up to Hawkins and his men, Kent doesn’t give us a reason to cheer. This isn’t John Wick blowing away an army of bad guys for killing his dog. This is an exploration of pure evil, an exorcism in a way that leaves everyone affected stained and broken. By pushing us through a landscape of horror, Kent leaves us with an image of beauty and hope. Yet, the resonance of the nightmare still lingers, just as the shadow of colonialism still clings to the world.
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