Blood and Money

Blood and Money
Film poster
Directed by	John Barr
Screenplay by	John Barr Mike McGrale Alan Petherick
Produced by	Suza Horvat
Starring	Tom Berenger
Cinematography	John Barr
Edited by	Roger Cropley
Music by	Zak McNeil
Production company	Allagash
Distributed by	Screen Media Films
Release date	May 15, 2020 (2020-05-15)
Running time	89 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Blood and Money (formerly titled Allagash)^[1][2][3][4] is a 2020 American thriller film directed by John Barr and starring Tom Berenger. It is Barr's feature directorial debut.^[5]

Plot[]

Jim Reed lives in an RV near the woods of Maine during the winter. He is a former Marine who served in the Vietnam War and recovering alcoholic, being a year sober. He is divorced and her ex-wife is now dead, while his daughter died in a freak accident at a young age (which Jim thinks he caused due to drunk driving). He is also estranged from his son. One afternoon, while changing a tire, he begins to spit up blood and passes out, indicating he may have cancer. Jim hunts "game" (deer) for meat, and goes into town for his other supplies. Having few relationships, he eats breakfast regularly at a diner where he shares a friendship with Debbie, a waitress and working class mother unhappy with her marriage and general life. One night, after going to the local bar and considering drinking, he goes to the VFW's A.A. meeting, where he befriends George, an Iraq war veteran and Debbie's husband.

One evening, while hunting, Jim shoots what he thinks is a deer. He discovers that he's accidentally killed a young woman who says to Jim "you are a dead man" before dying. Panicked, he flees the woods and goes to town's bar, where he orders shots of whiskey, then yells at the bartender when she jokes about him falling "off the wagon". Watching the television, he discovers that the woman was part of a five person crew that robbed $1.5 million from a casino and viciously killed three security guards, also injuring twelve civilians. Realizing he left a cigarette butt near the dead woman's body, he hurries out back into the woods, but is rude to Debbie on the way.

Jim gets the cigarette butt and takes the bag of money near the dead woman's body, soon running into George, who is hunting game. Jim tries to convince George to turn back, but George refuses. When the other four men from the hit's crew arrive they search the dead woman's body, while armed with semiautomatic rifles. Both men flee. Jim gets away, but George is shot in the leg. While hiding behind some trees, Jim watches helplessly as George is executed when Jim refuses to give them the money; then hides again and moves again during dusk. Jim hides the money in a cave. He returns to his RV, only to find that the robbers have set it ablaze. He is shot in the shoulder and barely escapes. Jim finds a logging site, and rests for the night in the office. The next day, he leaves a note for the foreman, takes a revolver and leaves, going into a section of the woods where he can't be tracked. Soon after Jim gets away from an attack by one of the robbers, whom he kills with the revolver, only to discover that the robber's machine gun has been emptied, but takes it anyway. He finds another robber at the river and hides in a spot. He attacks the robber and gets into a brief scuffle, killing the man but falling into the river and losing the second robber's rifle.

Jim spends the night in the cave, burning some of the money to keep warm. He wakes up the next morning and tries to start another fire, only to discover that the lighter doesn't work. He finds Debbie's car on the road, but it won't start. Venturing further, he stumbles upon the last two robbers at the crew's vehicle: a father and son. Jim discovers that the woman was the son's girlfriend. The two head out to find Jim, but the son stays behind to urinate. Jim ambushes him and shoots him with his revolver, which causes the young man's semiautomatic to shoot and disable the pickup truck. The young man say to Jim that he killed his girlfriend, and despite his plea of "being even" with Jim, Jim kills him with the revolver. He grabs the semiautomatic, but again it is empty after the shooting.

Whithout any further bullets for his revolver, Jim tracks the father and calls him out. The father captures Jim, forcing him to take him to the money at gunpoint. The father taunts Jim about how his daughter's death and his divorce, and threatens to kill Jim's son after he gets the money from Jim. Jim responds by telling the father that he killed his son. The father goes into a fit of rage. As he goes to shoot Jim, Jim spits up blood, and uses the distraction to tackle the man and push them both off a steep hill. The father is incapacitated, having broken his arm and leg. Jim gets up and starts walking, but he has been severely wounded from the combination of the fall and blood loss after been shot two days earlier. Jim accepts his fate, and lies peacefully. A heavy snow starts to fall, which will bury both men.

The manager at the logging site finds the note at the office and drives to town, giving it to Debbie. She starts reading and sees that Jim sketched a map for her to find the cave where the money bag is hidden, together with the line "this is for you and for your kids". Believing it to be a joke, she rips it in half and throws it away. Seconds later she comes back and recovers it from the trash can.

Cast[]

• Tom Berenger ... Jim Reed
• Kristen Hager
• Jimmy LeBlanc

Release[]

Screen Media Films acquired the North American distribution rights to the film in March 2020.^[6]

The film was released on VOD on May 15, 2020.^[7]

Reception[]

The film has a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus reads, "Blood and Money gives Tom Berenger a too-rare opportunity to take the spotlight -- along with a middling script that falls back too often on action movie clichés."^[8] Jeffrey M. Anderson of Common Sense Media awarded the film two stars out of five.^[9] Odie Henderson of RogerEbert.com awarded it two and a half stars.^[10]

John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, calling it "a welcome vehicle for its star, who has been underused by filmmakers for decades."^[11]

References[]

External links[]

• Blood and Money at IMDb
• Blood and Money at Rotten Tomatoes