Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Could Crog or Hillary or somebody please explain to me why George Washington (the movie) is supposedly so great?
We watched it this weekend. Allyn absolutely hated it. I'm a bit more conflicted. Some of it was beautiful, and deeply affecting. Much of it, however, was arbitrary, unrealistic, and (I know some of you dislike this word) pretentious. The death scene was well done, the children were generally good actors, and many of the scenes between the children and the black girl and her sister felt natural and unforced. Green does have an eye for wonderful landscapes, and his soundtrack selections are inspired and excellently utilized. Some of the humor worked, but having unnecessary (albeit funny) shots, set to goofy music, of a shirtless guy driving a dirtbike around town, so soon after the disturbing and realistic death of a twelve-year-old, is a bit off-putting. At some points I couldn't tell if a scene was supposed to be serious or not. If the scene where Damascus tells George why he hates dogs is supposed to be serious, it's a failure because it's completely ridiculous; if it's supposed to be funny, it's a failure because it's too cynical, condescending, and (simply) unfunny. The annoying voice-over is a bad art-school / indie-film cliche, and George's costume is an overly quirky contrivance. Allyn was most offended by the insistent ugliness of the characters' surroundings, and by the arrogance and condescension she perceived in the (white, affluent, intellectual) film-maker's attitude towards his subjects and their environment. Allyn grew up in a small Southern town, she had friends and classmates who lived in poverty, and she felt that the desolation and squalor of George Washington is overexaggerated and unrealistic. Of course Dalton is propped up by a relatively stable industry, and is a far cry from the towns devastated by the closures of textile mills and the hits the tobacco industry have taken. Still, I do believe that, for a person raised in the upper middle class to create a realistic and believable depiction of modern poverty and dying-town desperation, a wisdom and maturity well beyond the grasp of David Gordon Green's then-25 years of age is requred. Compared to All the Real Girls, which felt almost effortless, George Washington is severely disappointing.
We watched it this weekend. Allyn absolutely hated it. I'm a bit more conflicted. Some of it was beautiful, and deeply affecting. Much of it, however, was arbitrary, unrealistic, and (I know some of you dislike this word) pretentious. The death scene was well done, the children were generally good actors, and many of the scenes between the children and the black girl and her sister felt natural and unforced. Green does have an eye for wonderful landscapes, and his soundtrack selections are inspired and excellently utilized. Some of the humor worked, but having unnecessary (albeit funny) shots, set to goofy music, of a shirtless guy driving a dirtbike around town, so soon after the disturbing and realistic death of a twelve-year-old, is a bit off-putting. At some points I couldn't tell if a scene was supposed to be serious or not. If the scene where Damascus tells George why he hates dogs is supposed to be serious, it's a failure because it's completely ridiculous; if it's supposed to be funny, it's a failure because it's too cynical, condescending, and (simply) unfunny. The annoying voice-over is a bad art-school / indie-film cliche, and George's costume is an overly quirky contrivance. Allyn was most offended by the insistent ugliness of the characters' surroundings, and by the arrogance and condescension she perceived in the (white, affluent, intellectual) film-maker's attitude towards his subjects and their environment. Allyn grew up in a small Southern town, she had friends and classmates who lived in poverty, and she felt that the desolation and squalor of George Washington is overexaggerated and unrealistic. Of course Dalton is propped up by a relatively stable industry, and is a far cry from the towns devastated by the closures of textile mills and the hits the tobacco industry have taken. Still, I do believe that, for a person raised in the upper middle class to create a realistic and believable depiction of modern poverty and dying-town desperation, a wisdom and maturity well beyond the grasp of David Gordon Green's then-25 years of age is requred. Compared to All the Real Girls, which felt almost effortless, George Washington is severely disappointing.
