Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a look at Wim Wenders' newest flick, the post 9-11 exploratory LAND OF PLENTY. Sounds like Capone fell ten ways to Sunday in love with this flick, so I'll let him take the floor and splooge it out for you! Enjoy!
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here with something of an unexpected review for you. I was in the midst of compiling my reviews and interviews from the Bermuda International Film Festival, when I literally accidentally found out about a screening happening in my fair winder city of Wim Wenders latest examination of the sympathetic mental patient known as America, LAND OF PLENTY. Wenders was in attendance for a Q&A after the film, which was screened at Columbia College's newest screening facility. Since the event was so last-minute, I didn't even have time to arrange an interview, but I need get to meet the man who has been a compelling force in my life for decades. He was tired from flying all night to get to Chicago for the screening, but he couldn't have been any more cordial, forthcoming, and honest about his admiration for a country that is struggling with itself and its place in the world. Let me talk about this small gem of a film called LAND OF PLENTY.
There are few filmmakers in my lexicon of favorites that have challenged me as thoroughly as Wim Wenders. Like many studying film history, my first exposure to Wenders was his landmark 1976 work KINGS OF THE ROAD. I didn't understand the New German Cinema, and anyone interested in exploring the movement shouldn't turn to Wenders necessarily. As soon as he was crowned the king of this band of filmmakers, he turned his attentions to America. THE AMERICAN FRIEND and PARIS, TEXAS are simply stunning works, but it was WINGS OF DESIRE that, in my mind, transformed Wenders from one of my favorite directors to one of my all-around heroes of cinema. In my mind, WINGS OF DESIRE is the single most beautifully told love story every made. Disagree at your will, but for me, it struck such a chord that I get tingly just thinking about the angels watching over us, possibly falling in love with us. Wenders work in the 1990s is so closely tied to the music her showcased that one often overlooks the quality of the work and ideas. While his BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB (1999) documentary single-handedly relaunched Cuban jazz into the world at large, I actually prefer the feature film LISBON STORY (1994), which featured a little known (outside of Portugal) group called Madredeus, which has since become one of my favorite to listen to. Even his more frustrating works like THE MILLION DOLLAR HOTEL (2000) are difficult to take your eyes off of.
I'm pleased to report that, although it features some great musical selections, Wenders' LAND OF PLENTY is not about music. The story of getting this movie made is almost as interested as the film itself. Not by choice, Wenders found himself with several months to kill after a delay in his collaboration with Sam Shepard (the upcoming DON'T COME KNOCKIN', set for release after the summer). Wenders had auditioned actress Michelle Williams for the film, and liked her tremendously but couldn't find a role for her in KNOCKIN'. When financing problems forced the postponement of that film, Wenders decided to write and shoot another movie in the interim, and the only thing he knew about it before setting out to write a treatment was that the film would star Ms. Williams and that it would addressed the fractured state of America in a post-9/11 frame of mind. His treatment took three days to write; he handed over the screenwriting duties to relatively untested writer Michael Meredith, who had three weeks to finish the script; and due to budget constraints, he only had 16 days to shoot what amounts to a two-hour movie. You'd expect something of a frenzied, sloppy film to result, but quite the opposite is true.
LAND OF PLENTY is a thoughtful, deliberately paced work that tells is the story of Lana (Williams), who has just moved back to Los Angeles after living many years in Palestine. She is seeking her long-lost uncle Paul (the utterly remarkably John Diehl), a Vietnam veteran who has taken it upon himself to be a one-man Homeland Security soldier. Paul is as disturbed as he is intelligent and quick on his feet. He patrols the streets of downtown L.A. in a beat-up surveillance van, looking for signs of terrorist cells. Any sign will do, even ones that aren't signs at all. His van is amazing, wallpapered with wanted posters for Osama Bin Laden and other known terrorists, as if Paul thinks they'll suddenly appear before him walking his tragic streets. With the help of a small pocket tape recorder, Paul records his missions and catalogues them religiously for no one but himself to listen later on.
With the assistance of family friend and paster Henry (Wendell Pierce), Lana moves into a room above one of L.A. many missions servicing and feeding the homeless, and attempts to find her roaming uncle. The pastor's sermons to the homeless are given surprisingly large blocks of time here, but his kind and helpful words seem to fall on deaf ears. It's tough to swallow the belief that God loves you, when you're living on the street, I suppose. Using the only address she has for Paul, Lana does finally make contact with him, but rather than simply dismiss his informed ramblings, she decides to work with him. Her motives for humoring his paranoia seem to be the desire just to connect with a man she has fond memories of as a child, and as a woman without a home, her need to be with family is overwhelming. Paul allows her to stay close to him, at first because he's spotted an Arab man (Shaun Toub) using the mission to get meals. Thinking the man is part of a cell, Paul follows him and witnesses his being gunned down by two people in a Hummer right outside the mission. He suspects a plot.
The heart and soul of the film involves Paul and Lana driving from L.A. to the near-ghost town of Trona, California, just outside of Death Valley. They are transporting the dead man's body to his only known relative, his brother Youssef (Bernard White). Paul is hoping Youssef will lead him to terrorists; Lana simply wants to give the man some peace about his long-missing brother. What both discover in Trona shakes their very souls in unanticipated ways. LAND OF PLENTY is a film of deliberately mixed messages. Paul represents the gung-ho policies of the U.S. government in its ugliest form. There's a scene where Paul creeps into a house in Trona he believes is storing chemical weapons. On the T.V. is George W. Bush, and all we can think of as we pity Paul's state of mind at that moment is that all of this is Bush's fault. It's one of dozens of moments in watching this film where your emotions run high and alterative between immense sadness and rage.
Although the characters rarely mention 9/11 directly, it's as much a character in this film as anyone. When Lana impresses upon Paul that the victims at the World Trade Center probably would not have wanted their deaths to lead to more people dying, I almost lost it. Although I'm hardly surprised that it takes someone from another country (although Wenders has lived in America for nearly 10 years) to give us perspective on our own nation, Wenders' perception and observations are astonishingly precise. There's no outward criticism voiced, no political statement given. Wenders would never be that brazen. Even with Paul's militaristic musings on the world, LAND OF PLENTY is a largely quiet, thoughtful piece, which culminates with a cross-country road trip to a location that makes perfect sense, and a place we hope will quiet the voices in Paul's fragile mind.
It's within these small, narrow confines that Wenders tends to shine, and here he does so brilliantly. He explained to us that the mix of religious doctrine and left-wing attitude toward the government are making this a tough film to get distribution. The film companies are apparently telling him the apparent mixed messages make the film impossible to market. As a result, Wenders and his partners are using more of a grass roots approach to LAND OF PLENTY's summer release. This means you'll have to pay extra-close attention to the small art houses in your town. LAND OF PLENTY is one of Wenders' finest works, and John Diehl's work here is among the best I've seen in years. If for no other reason than to get Diehl's performance out into the world, I hope this film's gets some amount of recognition.
Capone
email: Drop Capone your hate and/or love mail here!
