The Hunter (2012)

Willem Dafoe on The Hunter

In The Hunter, Willem Dafoe plays a mercenary sent to Tasmania by a mysterious European biotech company. Once there, he&#039s supposed to hunt a rare tiger but things get complicated when another hunter appears on the scene. The film, which was shot on location in Tasmania, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. That&#039s where Cineplex Magazine&#039s Mathilde Roy sat down with the veteran star of such flicks as Platoon, The Last Temptation of Christ, Mississippi Burning and Spider-Man to discuss the new film, his favourite kinds of roles and his approach to doing interviews.

Flick Daily,

Review: ‘The Hunter’ Goes Beyond Killing Tale to Solid Character Study

Editor’s Note: This review first ran as part of our SXSW coverage on March 11, but The Hunter is hitting limited theaters this week. The Hunter is a film of surprising scope and intimacy. On the outside, it's a basic &#8220dangerous hunting&#8221 tale, but on the inside, it's a story of a man, said hunter (Willem Dafoe), connecting with people on an emotional level for what might be the first time in his life. That reeks of hokiness, but with with an assured directorial hand, most of the drama is calm and collected. A lot of that stems from Dafoe, giving the sort of high caliber performance we've grown to expect from him. Martin David is a hunter of the illegal sort, and he's given quite the challenge: get a sample from a Tasmanian tiger. Not an easy task. When we're introduced to Martin, he's shown in isolation, completely out of place in a snazzy hotel room. After his hunting serv (Read More)

Film School Rejects

Interview: Willem Dafoe Talks Turning Up the Heat, Mr. Bobby Peru, and ‘The Hunter’

Willem Dafoe delivers a quiet performance in The Hunter, Daniel Nettheim&#8216s observant character-driven feature debut. It's a character which relies purely on movement, expression, and action &#8211 all internal. The protagonist, Martin, a.k.a. The Hunter, is a man skilled in violence, and that's about as much as you can say for him for most of the film's running time. As you would've predicted, the character grows in a way of showing warmth and humanity, but, as Dafoe explains, not in a sentimental way. Martin is the type of character who feels at home in the woods wielding a rifle, rather than watching after a pair of children. Do not expect this to be the story of a cold man who in actuality has a big heart of a gold they're ready to unleash, because it's far from it. Here's what actor Willem Dafoe had to say about Martin, directors with intense passion, and Bobby Peru, the ul (Read More)

Film School Rejects

Film: Movie Review: The Hunter

It’s possible to think of The Hunter as a thriller diluted by atmosphere or a mood piece disrupted by plot, but for much of the film’s length, director Daniel Nettheim successfully pitches camp in the razor-thin overlap between the two. Willem Dafoe , who brings brooding storm clouds with him wherever he goes, plays a hazily defined mercenary who takes on a pharmaceutical company’s assignment to hunt down the purportedly extinct Tasmanian tiger. That, naturally, means heading to Tasmania, whose untouched terrain proves more hospitable than some of the locals. Badly (and somewhat implausibly, given his profession) fumbling ...

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