Noor Malhotra
Ti West’s critically acclaimed directorial ‘In a Valley of Violence’ is a good ole’ fashioned Western movie that follows a mysterious nomad, Paul, as he makes his way through the Old West with his dog, Abbie. To shorten the journey, they cut through a now-deserted town called Denton. A tale of bravado, violence, guts, and bloodshed ensues. Starring Ethan Hawke and John Travolta, the movie opened to a positive response from the critics and the audiences. Many fans even wondered: Was the movie really shot in Mexico? Well, let’s find out!
In a Valley of Violence Filming Locations
The location of choice for the filmmakers was Santa Fe, New Mexico. Talking about how the production team was the one he always worked with, West said, “So we’re a pretty well oiled machine when it comes to just like the production of making a movie, so we swapped in some celebrities this time, but everyone I wanted to be in this movie I got which is very rare that that happens and the other thing is that when you make a Western, people want to be in a Western.”
Santa Fe, New Mexico
The casting call released by Project Casting stated that the filming started on June 23, 2014, in Santa Fe. It went on till July 25, 2014. Approximately the shoot lasted for five weeks or 25 days. Primarily, they were looking to fill two roles. The first was a character by the name of Dollar Bill, and the person needed to be over the age of 50, skinny, not bald. The second character that had to be cast was a bartender, and he, too, had to be older than 50. Some other requirements were that he needed to have grey hair and facial hair, including sideburns. Extras such as Native Americans and Caucasian people were also cast.
A Western town was built from scratch at the Cerro Pelon Ranch in Galisteo, where most of the movie was shot. The salon, dilapidated houses, and train tracks were all a part of this set. The production did not have a huge budget, but the movie looks grand as it was shot in 35mm film. Talking about the filming process, the director explained, “And for one reason because, I don’t know, it’s a historic genre and we should shoot on film, we could go on and on about why I think we should shoot on film on everything, but if we had shot this movie on digital I think that it would have looked like behind the scenes of a movie or a History Channel making of the movie.
He added, “If that was the case, which I believe that it would have been, from the very first frame, I would have been in a hole that I could never dig myself out of.” Eric Robbins, the cinematographer, said that photographing New Mexico was not easy as it had such a harsh environment. He also stated that since Kodak was collapsing, all its labs around the US were also shrinking. Thus, the footage would get shipped from New Mexico to Los Angeles daily. Furthermore, Fotokem, a post-production facility in LA, had cut down its operation times. Therefore, there were times when the team did not even see some footage for days.
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