Review by Ian Keogh

The simplicity, the clear lines drawn between good and bad, and the false suggestion of better days all make the Western an appealing genre, and as many have shown, it doesn’t have to be limited to the past. That’s Christa Faust’s view as she reinvigorates perceptions of the genre via placing a gay love story as absolutely central to everything that happens in Redemption.

That title indicates a path, but it’s also the name of a town founded by a preacher spreading their poisonously malign worldview, someone who needs redemption, but isn’t aware of it. Much of the trappings evoke the classic Western era, but this is the future, where what to us is advanced technology such as bionic arms and sleek vehicles actually remain functional due to dying expertise, string and solder.

Faust begins with a woman being publicly whipped for performing an abortion on a young girl who’d been raped. Redemption may be run by a preacher, but the prevailing views are corrupt and hypocritical. When she’s subsequently sentenced to be hung, her daughter reaches out to the Butcher, a local legend with a terrible reputation, but long unseen.

In his notes at the end Mike Deodato mentions dropping the grid system of illustration he’d been using, an example being his previous collaboration with Faust, Bad Mother. It allows for a more expansive worldview, and his art and designs are to drool over. Central character Cat Tanner, the Butcher, is marvelously created as a female counterpart to the aged Western hero, her experiences etched on her face, while others are suitably slimy and disturbing. Rose Obregon can be seen as innocence corrupted or enthusiastic learner, and Deodato cinematically nails her transition. The excellent art is further raised via the considered colours applied by Lee Loughridge, whose sepia wash for flashbacks is particularly evocative.

The past is systematically disinterred for the new audience of Rose, giving clarity as to how it informs the present. Cat is the star turn, but Faust includes other memorable characters, not least the brutal Sheriff who’s waited a long time for a reckoning, and includes the surprise of water, not gold, being the primary currency. Control of the water equates to control of the town.

Creatively violent with a point to make, Redemption is a first class Western.