''Blueberry'' (french: Blueberry : L'expérience secrète) is a 2004 French

acid Western Acid Western is a subgenre of the Western film that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s that combines the metaphorical ambitions of critically acclaimed Westerns, such as ''Shane'' and ''The Searchers'', with the excesses of the Spaghetti Westerns and ...

directed by

Jan Kounen Jan Kounen (born Jan Coenen; 2 May 1964) is a Netherlands-born French film director and producer. In France, he is mostly known for his films ''Dobermann'' (1997), '' Blueberry, l'experience secrete'' (2004) and '' 99 francs'' (2007). Outside ...

. It is an adaptation of the Franco-Belgian comic book series ''

Blueberry Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus ''Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries, bi ...

'', illustrated by

Jean Giraud Jean Henri Gaston Giraud (; 8 May 1938 – 10 March 2012) was a French artist, cartoonist, and writer who worked in the Bandes dessinées, Franco-Belgian ''bandes dessinées'' (BD) tradition. Giraud garnered worldwide acclaim under the pseu ...

(better known as Moebius) and scripted by

Jean-Michel Charlier Jean-Michel Charlier (; 30 October 1924 – 10 July 1989) was a Belgian comics writer. He was a co-founder of the famed Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Pilote''. Life Charlier was born in Liège, Belgium, in 1924.De Weyer, Geert (2005). ...

, but the film has little in common with the source material. The film starred

Vincent Cassel Vincent Cassel (; ; born 23 November 1966) is a French actor. He first achieved recognition for his performance as a troubled History of the Jews in France, French Jewish youth in Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film ''La Haine (Hate)'', for which he ...

as the title character along with

Michael Madsen Michael Søren Madsen (born September 25, 1957) is an American actor. He has starred in many films and television series, frequently collaborating with director Quentin Tarantino, most famously in the latter's debut film ''Reservoir Dogs'' (19 ...

and

Juliette Lewis Juliette Lake Lewis (born June 21, 1973) is an American actress and alternative rock singer. She is known for her portrayals of offbeat characters, often in films with dark themes. Lewis became an "it girl" of American cinema in the early 1990s, ...

. Although the film is a French production, the film is in English to match the story's setting in America's

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

in the 1870s. Since the character of Blueberry remains obscure in the States, the film was released on DVD in America in November 2004 under the title ''Renegade'' and marketed very much as a conventional

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

Plot

U.S. Marshal Mike Donovan (

) (referred to as Broken Nose by the aboriginal tribe; unlike the comic his nickname is not Blueberry) has dark memories of the death of his first love. He keeps peace between the whites and the aborigines who had temporarily adopted and taken care of him. The evil actions of Blount, a "white sorcerer" lead him to confront the villain in the Sacred Mountains, and, through shamanic rites involving an

entheogen Entheogens are psychoactive substances that induce alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition, or behavior for the purposes of engendering spiritual development or otherwiseRätsch, Christian, ''The Encyclopedia of Psychoac ...

ic brew, conquer his fears and uncover a suppressed memory he would much rather deny.

Cast

as Mike Blueberry **

Hugh O'Conor Hugh O'Conor (born 19 April 1975) is an Irish actor, writer, director, and photographer. In 2020, he was listed as number 49 on ''The Irish Times'' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Career His first film appearance was opposite Liam Neeso ...

as Young Mike Blueberry *

as Maria Sullivan *

as Wallace Sebastian Blount *

Temuera Morrison Temuera Derek Morrison (born 26 December 1960) is a New Zealand actor and Singer who first gained recognition for his role as Dr. Hone Ropata on the soap opera ''Shortland Street''. He gained critical acclaim for his starring role as Jake "The ...

as Runi *

Ernest Borgnine Ernest Borgnine (; born Ermes Effron Borgnino; January 24, 1917 – July 8, 2012) was an American actor whose career spanned over six decades. He was noted for his gruff but relaxed voice and gap-toothed Cheshire Cat grin. A popular perfor ...

as Rolling Star *

Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...

as Woodhead *

Geoffrey Lewis Geoffrey Lewis may refer to: * Geoffrey Lewis (actor) (1935–2015), American character actor * Geoffrey Lewis (scholar) (1920–2008), British professor of Turkish * Geoffrey Lewis (philatelist), Australian philatelist * Geoffrey W. Lewis (died ...

as Greg Sullivan *

Nichole Hiltz Nichole Marie Hiltz is an American actress. She has appeared in several films, made-for-TV movies, and television series. Her most recent long-running television credit is for USA Network's ''In Plain Sight'' from 2008 to 2012 in which she portra ...

as Lola * Kateri Walker as Kateri *

Vahina Giocante Vahina Giocante (born 30 June 1981) is a French actress. Career As ''Marie'' in '' Marie Baie des Anges'' (1997), she is among a group of young wanderers who become enmeshed in love, hate, and violence on the French Riviera. In 1999 she appe ...

as Madeleine * Kestenbetsa as Kheetseen *

Tchéky Karyo Tchéky Karyo (; born 4 October 1953) is a French actor and musician of Turkish origin. Beginning his career as an actor on stage in classical and contemporary works, he began to work as a character actor in films in the 1980s. He has acted in nu ...

as Uncle *

Eddie Izzard Edward John Izzard (; born 7 February 1962) is a British stand-up comedian, actor and activist. Her comedic style takes the form of what appears to the audience as rambling whimsical monologues and self-referential pantomime. Izzard's stand- ...

as Prosit *

Colm Meaney Colm J. Meaney (; ga, Colm Ó Maonaigh; born 30 May 1953) is an Irish actor known for playing Miles O'Brien in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' (1987–1994) and '' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' (1993–1999). He has guest-starred on many T ...

as Jimmy McClure *

François Levantal François Levantal (born 14 October 1960) is a French actor. He has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1986. Filmography Theater Music videos External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Levantal, Francois 1960 births Living people F ...

as Pete

Production

, the famous Franco-Belgian comics creator and the illustrator of the original ''Blueberry'' comics, appears in a

cameo role A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

in the film, while

, who had appeared in several

spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s, and his daughter

play a father and daughter in the movie. The movie features several elaborate

psychedelic Psychedelics are a subclass of hallucinogenic drugs whose primary effect is to trigger non-ordinary states of consciousness (known as psychedelic experiences or "trips").Pollan, Michael (2018). ''How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of ...

3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ...

sequences as a means of portraying Blueberry's shamanic experiences from his point of view.

, the director of the film, drew upon his extensive firsthand knowledge of

ayahuasca AyahuascaPronounced as in the UK and in the US. Also occasionally known in English as ''ayaguasca'' (Spanish-derived), ''aioasca'' (Brazilian Portuguese-derived), or as ''yagé'', pronounced or . Etymologically, all forms but ''yagé'' descen ...

rituals in order to design the visuals for these sequences, Kounen having undergone the ceremony at least a hundred times with

Shipibo The Shipibo-Conibo are an indigenous people along the Ucayali River in the Amazon rainforest in Peru. Formerly two groups, the Shipibo and the Conibo, they eventually became one distinct tribe through intermarriage and communal ritual and are c ...

language speakers in

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

. An authentic Shipibo ''ayahuasca'' guide appears in the film and performs a sacred chant. In the film, the exact nature of the

ic sacramental liquid which Blueberry (and his enemy, Blount) drink remains undisclosed. During the final visionary scene, however, there is a bowl of leaves shown accompanied by a twisting vine which is probably the ayahuasca vine, ''

Banisteriopsis caapi ''Banisteriopsis caapi'', also known as ayahuasca, caapi, soul vine, or yagé (yage), is a South American liana of the family Malpighiaceae. It is one half of ayahuasca, a decoction with a long history of its entheogenic (connecting to spirit) us ...

''. Historically, Native Americans living in the

Southwest United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, would have had no geographic access to ayahuasca.

Peyote The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...

is shown growing in the sacred areas throughout the film, and the buttons are prominently displayed at the end, although the viewer cannot be sure what Runi offers to the Marshal either time.

Reception

''Blueberry'' was not a critical success in the Anglophone world and received mostly negative reviews. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

it has a 22% rating based on reviews from 9 critics. Jamie Russell, of the BBC, felt the film was 'two parts bonkers to one part boring', and compared it to '' The Missing'' by describing it as 'totally lost'. In his review for ''Cinopsis'', Eric Van Cutsem found that the film greatly disappointed the expectations of the large audiences of the original comic, being largely unrelated in both story and character. Raphaël Jullien, of ''Abus de Cine'', felt the film's greatest weakness was that it was partly

auteur An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...

experimentalism and partly genre western. Some reviewers found praise for ''Blueberry''. Lisa Nesselson, writing for ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' was generally positive, noting the film demonstrated "one of the most mystical approaches to the Western this side of ''

El Topo ''El Topo'' (, "The Mole") is a 1970 Mexican acid Western art film written, scored, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky. Characterized by its bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Ju ...

'' and felt that the hallucinogenic climax of the film 'may be the closest this generation will get to having its own variation on the ''Stargate'' sequence in Kubrick's '' 2001: A Space Odyssey''". Nesselson also noted that the film 'functions better as a purely visual journey than as the revelatory spiritual crucible it aspires to be'. ''Blueberry'' has managed to build a reputation as a cult success and as a trip film.

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

cult cinema website Film de Culte awarded the film 5-out-of-6, noting the unusual goal of the

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, riv ...

, 'the treasure sought by Wally Blount is not gold hidden in Indian mountains, but the spirit that emerges' through the quest of the

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

as 'a man in search of his identity, his roots, openness to the world and, why not, to love'. The cinematography by

Tetsuo Nagata is a Japanese cinematographer based in France. He was the Director of Photography for numerous films, including '' Narco'', ''Paris, je t'aime'' and '' La Vie En Rose'' . He won the César Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 2001 for '' Th ...

was also referred to as 'sublime'. Tripzine noted the film has 'the best, most accurate, most lovingly crafted shamanic rituals and psychedelic visuals ever created for home viewing', and praised ''Blueberrys uniqueness among westerns for having a climax that revolved around shamanic rite rather than a gun battle.

References

External links