Film Review
Land of Plenty
Dir. Wim WendersScr. Scott Derrickson (story), Michael Meredith (screenplay)
Michelle Williams
John Diehl
Shaun Toub
Wendell Pierce
Richard Edson
Burt Young
Official Site - www.wim-wenders.com
Went to a special screening of Wim Wenders's fim, Land of Plenty last night. I really enjoyed it and wasn't sure that I would going in. Wenders's films are often a challenge, although I have liked a number of them. In fact, I even liked Million Dollar Hotel, which few others seemed to. This one is about America post 9/11, and is set in downtown Los Angeles.
In the Q&A after the screening Wenders aid that for him a sense of place comes before story and that this film was about three locations that meant something to him; downtown Los Angeles, Trona, a company town at the entrance to Death Valley, and Ground Zero. It is a story about the way people deal with their concepts of America post 9/11. The two main characters are related, but are poles apart socially, politically, in pretty much every other way. It is not a polemic about the war, although there is a strong sense of anti-war sentiment that flows through the film. It is really a call to look beyond the stereotypes and view America through a more complex lens. Wenders has just moved back to Berlin after living here in Los Angeles for eight years, so his view is as an outsider but with insider connections. He loves America, but not how it has positioned itself in the world today and wants to redeem that aspect of it. Apparently, some critics thought he was too soft on America, but his self-declared intention was not to be harsh but to attempt to present another view, a gentler one, that might open up room for reflection rather than just critique.
Before showing the film he got up and thanked everyone for coming and paid a little homage to InDigEnt (independent-digital-entertainment) films who financed the project. The movie was made for $500,000.00, not much by movie standards where film budgets float in the multi-multi million mark. The interesting thing about the company is that everyone who works on the film gets paid the same daily rate and once the movie is released receives a point of the gross, so rather than a few top tier people who generally make all the money, everyone gets a piece of the pie. Wenders began the evening with what he calls his 'theory,' that the more money you have, the less you can say." He talked about what money can buy in movie-making and what it cannot, contrasting hype versus real content.Big budget films can use a lot of effects and stuff but often lack depth and substance. I think there is some validity to his comment. Increasingly it is the low-fi, low budget, homemade stuff that seems to have the creative edge when it comes to the arts. The best film I've seen lately is George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, another self-financed and relatively small budget movie. Of course this is not a hard and fast rule, but after this summer's movie releases I would definitely side with Wenders. One other great comment was about the people working with him on the film. For many of them it was their first feature film gig and he commented that their inexperience helped because they didn't know that the tasks set before them were impossible!
Another interesting post-screening comment was that Wenders is a Christian and feels that Christianity has been hijacked by the current administration and the Christian right, and wanted his film to offer some aspects of the message of Jesus that he thinks have been overlooked, compassion particularly. The film does have a strong Christian thread, Scott Derrickson, the co-writer, is a Biola graduate and a pretty conservative evangelical, but fortunately, this is not what shines through.
Can't leave without saying that as usual the music was absolutely fantastic as always. Wenders movies are always as much a musical journey as anything else and I always enjoy that aspect of his film. Leonard Cohen sang it out in fine form.
In the Q&A after the screening Wenders aid that for him a sense of place comes before story and that this film was about three locations that meant something to him; downtown Los Angeles, Trona, a company town at the entrance to Death Valley, and Ground Zero. It is a story about the way people deal with their concepts of America post 9/11. The two main characters are related, but are poles apart socially, politically, in pretty much every other way. It is not a polemic about the war, although there is a strong sense of anti-war sentiment that flows through the film. It is really a call to look beyond the stereotypes and view America through a more complex lens. Wenders has just moved back to Berlin after living here in Los Angeles for eight years, so his view is as an outsider but with insider connections. He loves America, but not how it has positioned itself in the world today and wants to redeem that aspect of it. Apparently, some critics thought he was too soft on America, but his self-declared intention was not to be harsh but to attempt to present another view, a gentler one, that might open up room for reflection rather than just critique.
Before showing the film he got up and thanked everyone for coming and paid a little homage to InDigEnt (independent-digital-entertainment) films who financed the project. The movie was made for $500,000.00, not much by movie standards where film budgets float in the multi-multi million mark. The interesting thing about the company is that everyone who works on the film gets paid the same daily rate and once the movie is released receives a point of the gross, so rather than a few top tier people who generally make all the money, everyone gets a piece of the pie. Wenders began the evening with what he calls his 'theory,' that the more money you have, the less you can say." He talked about what money can buy in movie-making and what it cannot, contrasting hype versus real content.Big budget films can use a lot of effects and stuff but often lack depth and substance. I think there is some validity to his comment. Increasingly it is the low-fi, low budget, homemade stuff that seems to have the creative edge when it comes to the arts. The best film I've seen lately is George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck, another self-financed and relatively small budget movie. Of course this is not a hard and fast rule, but after this summer's movie releases I would definitely side with Wenders. One other great comment was about the people working with him on the film. For many of them it was their first feature film gig and he commented that their inexperience helped because they didn't know that the tasks set before them were impossible!
Another interesting post-screening comment was that Wenders is a Christian and feels that Christianity has been hijacked by the current administration and the Christian right, and wanted his film to offer some aspects of the message of Jesus that he thinks have been overlooked, compassion particularly. The film does have a strong Christian thread, Scott Derrickson, the co-writer, is a Biola graduate and a pretty conservative evangelical, but fortunately, this is not what shines through.
Can't leave without saying that as usual the music was absolutely fantastic as always. Wenders movies are always as much a musical journey as anything else and I always enjoy that aspect of his film. Leonard Cohen sang it out in fine form.