Reviewing Movies

Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; revenge begets revenge. As a white boy growing up in an all-white community who did not see his first person of colour until he left home to go to university I do not claim to understand the motivation behind racial discrimination or the over-reaction it seems to engender. But then I hear that some spouses throw their china at one another and as a boy who grew up poor I cannot conceive of such wanton destruction. I remember Simcha Jacobovici’s 1991 movie Deadly Currents in which Lt. Kobi Motiv describes the use of gun fire to cool people down—I didn’t buy it then and I certainly don’t buy it now.

American History X tells the story of a working class family whose fireman father gets shot by blacks while fighting a fire. One of the wrongs perpetrated on poor white workmen in the South by slavery was the devaluation of the worth of their labour. Unless they became overseers there was no work for them as slave owners had their own “free” workforce. Educated house slave referred to them as poor white trash or crackers. Freeing the slaves only served to flood the job market with even more unskilled labourers.

We have all read the stories of disadvantaged white boys arguing that affirmative action programs discriminate against them by giving opportunities to people of colour with less skills and poorer grades. There may actually be something to the argument that illegal immigrants accept sub-grade wages and in so-doing deprive the working poor of jobs and better wages. Certainly I wouldn’t want the belligerent, car-jacking blacks portrayed in this movie for my neighbours nor would I choose to live anywhere near them.

This movie, however, is about economically challenged people who cannot afford to get out of that neighbourhood and the Neo-Nazis who prey on their discontent. The two brothers in this movie are by all accounts brilliant students not dumb white crackers; who just happen to find security and validation in a white supremacist organization. Theirs is a reaction to seeing their once white neighbourhood infiltrated by people who bring drugs, guns and violence to their schools; take over their playgrounds; make their streets unsafe to walk at night; and practise reverse discrimination when they take over local businesses. Whether we see it this way or not these white boys do and the actions they take bring them grief. Frustrated by the fact that police probably don’t enter his neighbourhood at night Derek Vinyard takes the law into his own hands and shoots to kill when blacks attempt to steal his car. Whether or not a man has the right to defend his castle it is the violence of his reaction that scares and lands him in jail.

It is ironic that the teacher who works to pull him through is black and the fellow inmate who saves his white ass in prison is also black. His salvation is giving up his hatred and prejudices; unfortunately the lesson comes too late to his brother Danny.

Picket Fences may not have the Blue Ridge Mountains setting of The Waltons but it has the same small town sensibilities and caring attitude that is accepting of eccentricity. The law is dispensed here with decency, respect, and humour without resorting to the cornball of a Boss Hog. Weird and screwball things happen in Rome, Wisconsin but it is the fact that the actors play it straight that adds to the humour. Tom Skerritt plays the straight man with aplomb; the hulking Costas Mandylor comes just short of being the dumb oaf to Lauren Holly’s smart Deputy. Making My Favourite Martian the town judge is inspired casting and he’s the perfect foil for the ambulance chasing lawyer.

Where else would Rusty the Tin Man die of heart failure, a child bring a severed hand to show and tell or a dwarf show up in town riding an elephant? What other Sheriff would bring the elephant home to stay in his garage? Picket Fences is crime without victims, menace without intimidation, and embarrassment without humiliation. The officers here care about people and it shows. Sheriff Brock runs the town the same way he cares for his family.

I would characterize this movie as the odd couple for the 21^st Century. Set in Limerick, Ireland; two young men decide to share an apartment. One is straight employed in a dead-end clerical government job. The other is a gay fashion design student. Both are artistic but the straight guy is drifting while the gay guy seems to know what he wants out of life. Their relationship and the movie have their awkward moments. Shane gets in over his head when he becomes involved with the neighbourhood drug dealers; Shawn for all his flamboyance does not feel comfortable doing drugs. The two come of age together and learn to support each other. Not a great movie but one I bought because it’s the only way I could obtain a copy to watch.

Paradise /The Prince of Tides

Two movies which came out in 1991 set in the tidal plains off the Carolinas among shrimp boaters. Both storylines feature dysfunctional families haunted by repressed memories of family traumas and deaths. Both casts involve family members.

Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson have their stoic existence invaded by the arrival of ten-year-old Elijah Wood whose pregnant mother has shipped him off to her best friend in Paradise. His summer is enriched by the presence of a lonely young neighbour played by Thora Birch.

Tom Wingo’s static existence is rocked by the attempted suicide of his twin sister in NYC. Traveling to New York to meet with his sister’s shrink he finds that even the rich and famous can have marriages as shaky as his own. This latter movie is told through flash-backs that illustrate Tom’s memories.

Both movies proceed at a slow southern pace amid beautiful scenery. The focus of the first is the two children; of the second the childhood experience of the Twin Brother and Sister. Although some may find both overly sentimental I have watched them repeatedly.