New American western film features an Irish twist

It’s an American western like you have never seen before — as it’s been filmed in Connemara.

Wed, 21 Aug, 2019 - 07:00

By Jim Gallagher

It’s an American western like you have never seen before — as it’s been filmed in Connemara. Never Grow Old starring Hollywood stars John Cusack and Emile Hirsch has outlaws, multiple murders, a hanging, a Bible-thumping preacher and God-fearing town folk, but the nearest it got to America was an old mine just outside Oughterard in Co Galway.

The violent movie explodes onto Irish screens from Friday and film lovers are in for a rollercoaster ride. Emile Hirsch, of Into the Wild and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood fame, plays Irish undertaker Patrick Tate in a frontier town during the California Gold Rush of 1849.

A father of two with another on the way he is struggling to make a living and wants to follow the wagon trains across the Rockies to California but his French wife Audrey (Deborah Francois) is happy living in the safe town.

When outlaw Dutch Albert (Cusack of High Fidelity and Runaway Jury fame) and his gang arrive there are soon murders galore – and Patrick is making a killing. Writer-director Ivan Kavanagh spent 10 years working on the screenplay, starting off by examining thousands of photos from the period to see how people lived.

“I collected photos from archives all over the world, especially American, and I saw huge similarities between the landscape in Nebraska — it was called the Nebraska Territory before 1852 — and parts of Connemara. This rocky, hilly, barren landscape,” he said.

And we did a few reccies over the years to Connemara and it was perfect. It’s not a compromise at all and we realised we could make a really realistic western there.

Ivan built a complete western town on land rented from Glengowla Mines 3km outside Oughterard.

“Every building was a real, functioning building, and you could have lived in them. There were no sets really,” said the director.

Ivan called his fictional American town Garlow after the town in Co Meath.

“I like the name and thought it sounded like a western town.”

Never Grow Old opens across Ireland on Friday.