A Truce with Death By Bill Shira Genre: Film
Reviewed by: Preston Hunter

Bill Shira's short film "A Truce with Death", starring Marvin Payne

http://www.ldsfilm.com/short/TruceWithDeath.html

"A Truce with Death" is a remarkable, interesting, inspirational yet challenging short film. Based on a true story, it depicts a pioneer couple which stays behind after its company moves forward because their baby is sick. When the baby stops breathing the husband and wife mourn her death in different ways, but must quickly abandon her half-buried in the brush because of the danger of Indians that surround them. I won't give away what happens next, because it really is an amazing story and it makes for a very compelling film. Frankly a friend of mine said he had seen this and didn't like it. I'm wondering if we saw the same film, because I thought this was quite good, and deserves greater attention.

This is a relatively low budget production, but I liked the rich colors and semi-classic look achieved by co-D.P.s Grant Williams and Mark Taft. The sound mix is completely mangled during the first minute, which is just opening credits shown over a painting. But once the body of the film begins the sound is mostly fine, except form some spots with poorly matched ADR.

One of the highlights of "A Truce with Death" is Marvin Payne's performance as the weary, low-on-faith pioneer husband who abandons his daughter in the wilderness.

The film also stars J. Scott Bronson, who does a great job as a somewhat bigoted Gentile.

Payne also did the musical score, which ranges from perfunctory to mediocre. But this doesn't detract much from film overall.

All in all, I really liked "A Truce with Death." I was interested in watching it mainly because of Shira's upcoming feature film. Seeing what he did 10 years ago makes me even more certain that his upcoming feature film will be one that critics and serious audiences will be pleasantly surprised by.

Shira is the director of the upcoming feature film "Where Rivers Meet", a movie starring most of Utah's top film stars, including Jaelan Petrie ("Handcart"), Tayva Patch ("Brigham City", "Out of Step"), Rick Macy ("Brigham City", "Testaments", "Out of Step"), Jan Felt (Disney's "Poof Point", "Little Secrets", "Everwood" Sariah in Gary Rogers' Book of Mormon movie), Bruce Newbold ("Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd", "How Rare a Possession", "The Lamb of God"), Connie Young ("The Singles Ward"), Julie West, and Joan Mullaney.

Marvin Payne ("Pure Race", "Saturday's Warrior"), the top-billed star of "A Truce with Death", is also one of the stars of "Where Rivers Meet."

Preston Hunter