The Claim

"Everything has a price."

2000 2h 0m EN

😐

6.0

MID

🍅

62%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.3

IMDB

★6.0TMDB · 115🍅62%Rotten Tomatoes●62Metacritic★6.3IMDB · 6,680

DramaRomanceWestern

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who owns much of the old west town named Kingdom Come. But changes are brewing and his past is coming back to haunt him. A surveyor and his crew scouts the town as a location for a new railroad line and a young woman suddenly appears in the town and is evidently the man's daughter.

“Everything has a price.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Peter Mullan
Daniel Dillon
Milla Jovovich
Lucia
Wes Bentley
Donald Dalglish
Nastassja Kinski
Elena Burn
Sarah Polley
Hope Burn
Shirley Henderson
Annie
Julian Richings
Francis Bellanger
Sean McGinley
Sweetley

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writers: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom, Canada, France, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 3% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 4 countries: United Kingdom, Canada, France, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, shot by Alwin H. Küchler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Michael Nyman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Trevor Waite shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Peter Mullan and Milla Jovovich and Wes Bentley carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Everything has a price.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Michael Winterbottom directs. Alwin H. Küchler behind the camera. Michael Nyman scores. Trevor Waite cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United Kingdom, Canada, France, United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Earned back only 3% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3International production across 4 countries: United Kingdom, Canada, France, United States of America.
4Directed by Michael Winterbottom, shot by Alwin H. Küchler. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Michael Nyman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Trevor Waite shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Peter Mullan and Milla Jovovich and Wes Bentley carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Everything has a price.".
9IMDB entry: tt0218378 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Alwin H. Küchler
Original score: Michael Nyman
Editing: Trevor Waite
Production design: Ken Rempel
Costume design: Joanne Hansen
Makeup / hair: Bryon Callaghan
Sound: Adrian Rhodes
Stunt coordinator: Kirk Jarrett
Runtime: 120 min · 2h 0m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $669,258
Return: 3% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: The Claim (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 62% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 62/100
IMDB rating: 6.3/10 · 6,680 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

1 win & 10 nominations

Also by

Michael Winterbottom

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2015-07-21
★ 8/10
The Casterbridge Claim. "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" Michael Winterbottom directs what is in essence a Western version of Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. It's Sierra Nevada, California, 1867 and the pioneer town of Kingdom Come is thriving under the strict but effective rule of Daniel Dillon (Peter Mullan). Dillon came by way of a gold claim many years earlier by way of a trade, the barter? His wife and child. But now the past is about to catch up with him and Kingdom Come could well turn out to be his burning hell... Right off the bat it has to be said that The Claim is a difficult film to recommend, even to Western movie lovers. It's deliberately slow and purposely elegiac and ethereal. The literary aspects of the narrative positively sparkle, yet still this doesn't make the story any more vibrant, because Winterbottom and screenplay writer Frank Cottrell Boyce want to keep things in perspective. In a film that is awash with untold beauty, the snowy mountainous landscapes (Calgary standing in for California) stunningly photographed by Alwin H. Küchler, it's perpetually cold and bleak, the ice and snow a constant that marries up with characters who are deliberately hard to like. Technically this is one superior piece of work. Küchler and Winterbottom's panoramas are sublime, the town is strikingly designed by the art department, all wooded angles and smoking chimneys that are magnificently framed by the mountains, while the sound-mix thunders the ears and adds another dimension to the grubby realistic feel. Interior sequences are filmed in low lights, making the lamps spectral in sight, the costume design and the narrative strength of the town whorehouse (which is the fulcrum of proceedings) have a class about them that shines bright in the pantheon of modern era produced Westerns, while Michael Nyman's musical score is evocatively strong. The cast respond well to Winterbottom's requirements, Mullan, Wes Bentley, Sarah Polley, Milla Jovovich and Nastassja Kinski (how nice to see the latter twin euro beauties stripped of make up to show a natural era sexiness) all turn in charismatic and heartfelt performances. Narratively the film is driving towards Dillon's day of reckoning, his shoulders heavy with regret and his soul in desperate need of purging. In the interim we are privy to the lives and loves of the townsfolk, their foibles, faults and fancies, this while the town is alive with the arrival of the railroad company, who it is hoped by Dillon will make Kingdom Come prosper still further... Unfair comparisons have been drawn with Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Yes, this is similar in style and execution, but why not just see it as the perfect companion piece to Altman's movie? Because it is. How about we instead look at the finale? Which draws a favourably thematic link to the brilliant Boetticher/Scott Western, Ride Lonesome. When push comes to shove, and in honest terms, The Claim is a film that for sure may be hard to love, but it sure as heck fire is a film that is easy to admire. Western fans should see it because they "will" take something positive from the experience. 8/10
Wuchak2019-08-17
★ 8/10
The beginning and end of a boom town in the Sierra Nevadas During the California gold rush of 1849 a desperate man establishes a boom town in the Sierra Nevadas. Eighteen years later his abandoned wife & daughter (Nastassja Kinski & Sarah Polley) ride into town and turn his life (Peter Mullan) upside down. Milla Jovovich plays his singing saloon babe while Wes Bentley is on hand as a surveyor for the railroad that’s coming through. “The Claim” (2000) is a top-of-the-line Western that inexplicably fell through the cracks when it was released. It has similarities to “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” (1971), but with more interesting characters, a more compelling story and spectacular locations, not to mention less focus on a house of ill repute. If you appreciate grim, realistic Westerns like “The Great Silence” (1968), “Bad Company” (1972), “The Missouri Breaks” (1976), “Heaven’s Gate” (1980), “Unforgiven” (1992) and “North Star” (1996), you’ll like this one. It’s as good or, in most cases, better. I should add that it’s not all grim; there are glimmerings of light. The film runs 2 hours and was shot at Fortress Mountain, Kananaskis Country, Alberta, with the train sequences filmed in Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado. GRADE: A-/B+