FIRST COW (2019)
overview
First Cow is about two men in the 1820s Northwest of America. They strike up a friendship and business plan in the harsh conditions of their world, revolving mainly on a rich man's forbidden dairy cow. I watched the first half of this movie in the dark in a tent with my boyfriend in the middle of Free State mountains. I thought about men and masculinity and how much they endure, how much suffering is normal to them. The men in this movie live in muddy forests where the sun never shines, where everything looks damp, where there's nowhere to dry your socks.
It Rained the day I watched this and I was reminded quickly, what slaves human beings are to nature. How some rain meant we couldn't sit outside, couldn't cook, couldn't walk up a mountain. I love this movie because the main characters are tough, not in any fake-macho way but in real-human way. They live and work and cook and laugh and live in the constant grey damp. They make honey cakes and serve them and, for a moment, when the other rough men bite into them, the damp lifts, the grey pauses. The honey cake taste like home.
sPOILER aLERT!
Cookie pets the cow and honours her milk and for a moment everything is precious. I love this movie. I love the whisk made of twigs. I love the joy food brings to those who make it as much as it brings to those who eat it. How it humanizes everyone. I love the cloth he used to hold his foraged mushrooms. I love how he strokes the cow. I love how they lie together, in the damp and finally fall fast asleep.
first cow (2019)