06/03/2002 Entry:
"Bigger Than Life - Nicholas Ray (1956)
George Washington - David Gordon Green (2000)"

Two examples of films I saw on video, and as soon as I did I realized that I really hadn't seen them at all. Bigger Than Life I had only really heard about through Rosenbaum's essay in Placing Movies. Then I saw a bit of it in the Personal Journey With Martin Scorcese DVD, and I was really really interested. I could tell already that it wouldn't translate well to video, but I felt like who knows when I'll ever see it otherwise. Searching around for a while, I discovered that not only was it not currently available on video, it appeared that it had never been released on video at all. A lot of times I can find letterboxed laserdiscs of stuff like this, but there was no evidence of that either. Finally I found a guy on Ebay selling letterboxed VHS tapes of the film, and jumped at it for a measly $10. When I got the tape, I discovered it had been taped off Fox Movie Channel. At this point, I was fine with that, just getting to see it at all. Of course, two weeks later I discovered that it was being screened at Block Cinema (although it was at a time I couldn't have attended anyways.)

The film is really great, although aspects of it play pretty dated (the panicked attitude towards drug use, the meek weak wife.) I love how as the film progresses the camera gets lower and lower and the lenses get wider and wider, until finally you have this shadowy James Mason towering over his son as he does his homework. Still, I know I won't really appreciate this until I get a chance to see it projected properly.

George Washington was just stunning in almost every way, barring some slight dissatisfaction over an ending which kind of leaves you hanging. I totally lost the mood of the film during the train break, and I knew it was going to be a problem five minutes in. I just couldn't stop watching these gorgeous images slide by, everything just evoking a hot North Carolina summer afternoon. The use of wide lenses through the majority of the film brought the scenery into play so well, giving the film a real sense of place and mood. You knew so much about these people from their surroundings that you didn't need anyone to say anything about their background. When I saw the first scene with the black kids walking up to the white rail workers, I thought we were heading into a racial film. Refreshingly, race seems to take absolutely no overt part in these proceedings, with everyone moving along as if they were all the same uniform color of grey.

The DVD also contains two short films by David Gordon Green which he made in film school, and you can see the seeds of George Washington growing in both of them. If I had seen this last year, it probably would have been my number one film for 2001. It was on the list of stuff to see, but it got lost in whatever I was doing around then (I'm pretty sure it only at Music Box for one week.) Coming across something like this on video and regretting not seeing it in the first place, really just drives home the fact that I need to get out and see more first run movies. I know of at least three I'm very interested in coming up in the next two weeks (Lady And The Duke, ABC Africa, CQ) and we'll see how well I do.

Replies: 2 comments

George Washington is one of my favorite American films in a long time. I saw it last summer here in Austin, on a "free film tuesday" that the Austin Film Society often has. David Gordon Green was on hand to answer questions, and he struck me as being as cool as his film. When I was watching the film, I kept thinking of Tarkovsky and Chris Marker, but later on, I read that Terrence Malick was one of DGG's favorite directors, and it totally made sense. The film has the same landscape as narrative feeling that I love so much in Malick's work, and it's insistence on the importance of the image is so refreshing(especially in an america so dominated by 'illustrated text'). As debut features go, George Washington is right up there with PI, as interesting films coming from the american indy scene. J. Posted by Joe DiCastro @ 06/04/2002 06:36 PM CST

The whole time I was watching, I felt that Thin Red Line vibe. Especially with the music and narration combined with a real sense of place. I'm going through the commentary now, and there's like ten minutes where all David Gordon Green does is talk about Thin Red Line and Terrence Malick, its pretty great just to hear someone going off and being really enthusiastic like that. Another touchstone I felt which I haven't seen mentioned is the later films of John Sayles (I'm thinking Passion Fish, Limbo and Lone Star.) While quite different in mood and narrative, Sayles really captured the spirit and essence of the areas where those films are set. The locations, their customs, their moods, their people, become as integral a part of the film as anything else. Obviously DGG did that as well here. Its amazing watching the commentary how a scene like Buddy's death plays so emotionally even with people babbling over it. Its just done so well. I have to see this projected somewhere nice sometime. Posted by gdd @ 06/05/2002 10:16 AM CST