Gold Blu-Ray Review - Zac Efron Delivers a Brilliant, Nearly Silent Performance

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Category: Streaming, Cable

Published on Monday, 11 July 2022 14:59

Written by Janet Walker

Gold, from Screen Media, presents the story of blinding greed as two drifters stumble on the largest gold nugget ever found, that feeds distrust and the need at all costs to survive in the harsh desert conditions.

The film begins with a barely recognizable Zac Efron, playing Drifter 1, who we meet on the train. The feel of the film is the Great Depression, although the transportation is more modern, and still rusted, old and aging. Food is scarce and one can immediately ascertain that while he has very little to give he offers a starving child the last of what he is eating . At heart, from his actions, we believe he is a good man, down on his luck and looking for work.

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He arrives at his destination, and find Drifter 2, played by Anthony Hayes. He also, immediately sets himself apart as someone who will take advantage of a situation, squeezing a man’s soul if possible, and clearly everything in his wallet. Unfortunately, he is the transportation to the jobsite.

The two begin a journey through harsh desert conditions. Limited supplies, a car that barely runs and will break down if the air conditioning is used. And a driver, who is nickel and diming his passenger whenever possible.

A roadside pit stop pulls Efron further from the shoulder of the deserted highway and he realizes he has found his fortune. Suddenly the two, both down of their luck, one less so, realize they have found a supersize gold deposit.

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Unable to extract the boulder size rock from the ground, they hatch a plan to protect and excavate their bounty with one man leaving to secure the necessary equipment. The other man remains and must endure harsh desert elements, ravenous wild dogs, and mysterious intruders, whilst battling the sinking suspicion that he has been abandoned to his own fate. The man who stays faces the possibility of death from the elements; the man who goes faces death from road hazards and other unknowns.

Drifter 1 decides to stay. We immediately understand the concept of there is no loyalty among thieves as Drifter 2, divides the water, explaining he needs the larger portion just in case his car breaks down, leaving Efron with a limited supply.

This is the first of many obstacles that Drifter 1 (Efron) confronts as he waits for Drifter 2 to return. Day 1 passes. Day 2 brings harsh heat, limited water, a sandstorm, and exhaustion as he continues to find a way to even chip off a piece of the rock, night arrives to the howling sounds of desert dogs and other creatures that smell their prey in the night reverberate.

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Day 3 arrives, delirium is setting in; needing to escape the beating sun, he walks over the dune and finds a crashed airplane. With little water left he is slowly losing his mind. A third drifter arrives played by Susie Porter and by this time he is unsure if she is real or his imagination. He has used up all the wood for the fire and the sounds in the night are closing in.

Gold pulls you into the story slowly with each obstacle the viewer is almost interactively deciding if they would stay or leave. Is the gold worth the possibility of dying? Even when a small portion is secure, enough to live contently for a lifetime, do you stay, risk death, for more? How much will draw someone past the point of no return?

Zac Efron delivers a dramatic, brilliant, and nearly silent, performance. A shocking film with and equally shocking ending, Gold is available on Blu-Ray and DVD. See it.

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Country: USA.

Language: English.

Runtime: 96minutes.

Director: Anthony Hayes.

Writer:  Anthony Hayes, Polly Smyth.

Cast: Zac Efron, Susie Porter, Anthony Hayes.

Available on Blu-Ray/DVD.