WONDERLAND
US, 2003, 107 minutes, Colour.
Val Kilmer, Kate Bosworth, Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, Dylan Mc Dermott, Christina Applegate, Eric Bogosian, Carrie Fisher, Frankie Girl, Janeane Garofalo, Ted Levine, Natasha Gregson Wagner.
Directed by James Cox.
There is fame and there is notoriety. John Holmes worked as a nursing assistant, married his nurse wife, was all set to live an ordinary life. However, he was 'discovered' by the Los Angeles X-rated film industry and became a star of the 1970s, making over a thousand films. He was a porn legend. Then what happened?
That is what Wonderland is about. Holmes may have lived in a permissive Alice in Wonderland kind of world. It may have seemed to him, with its drugs, sex and freedom and lack of responsibility, a wonderland. However, the film's title takes itself from one of the LA drives, Wonderland Ave. What happened there was that four people were massacred (reminding Los Angeles of the Sharon Tate, Manson group killings of thirteen years earlier). John Holmes was linked to the victims and speculation was that he participated in the killings.
The screenplay, filmed in bleached tones, with symbolic colours assigned to different versions of the events, with MTV pace, camera styles and editing, takes us into its sordid world via the different stories of Holmes and of addict, David Lind, who was away from Wonderland at the time of the murders. Each is the hero of his own story, always blaming the other. They are interviewed by the police and these stories are told in flashbacks, although we move from one person's memory into another's (especially the memories of Holmes girlfriend and of his wife).
Val Kilmer swaggers through his role as Holmes, caught up in the excess and the notoriety, always blaming others but seeing himself as a nice person. Dylan Mc Dermot is Lind, the kind of person who would be condemned as a sleazebag (along with Josh Lucas, Tim Blake Nelson, Christina Applegate and Janeane Garofalo as the associates in Wonderland). Eric Bogosian is a self-made club-manager and self-indulgent gangster. There are strong performances from Kate Bosworth as the girl that Holmes seems to love and Lisa Kudrow as his wife who gives some kind of moral compass to these sordid lives.
Many will find the characters and their behaviour distasteful. However, the film is interesting in dramatising them from different points of view so that we can make our own emotional and moral assessments.
1. The facts about the events, the characters? The interpretation by the writers and director? The differing perspectives?
2. The cinema style of the film, the grainy footage, bleached colours, emphasising different colours for characters and locations? Split screens, angles, editing and pace? The musical score, songs? The songs reminding audiences of the period?
3. The title, Alice in Wonderland, Wonderland Avenue in Laurel Canyon, Wonderland being in Los Angeles? The hippie wonderland of the 60s and 70s? The title as ironic?
4. The information about the characters, the facts of the killings, the pornography industry, John Holmes' career, drugs in Los Angeles, the nightclubs and gangsters, the police and their inquiries, detective work? The aftermath of the events? The fact that Sharon Holmes and Dawn contributed to the film as technical advisers?
5. The presentation of Los Angeles, the hippie background, the presentation of drug-taking, sexual activity, violence? A world of decadence and decay? The film showing the consequences of moral choices, this way of life?
6. The screenplay and its offering different stories on the same events? The focusing on the killings, the perspectives of David Lind, of John Holmes, of the police, of Sharon Holmes, of Dawn? The characters presenting themselves as the centre of everything, heroic, values? Confessions or cover up? Audiences wanting to understand the truth? The possibility of knowing the truth?
7. The use of flashbacks, whose flashbacks? The film moving in and out of people's flashbacks? The focus on Lind and his story, Holmes and his story, Dawn and her memories, Sharon and her memories? The cumulative effect?
8. Holmes and his screen persona, his ordinary life, the reconstruction of his legend? This film beginning after the legend? Fifteen years earlier, his marriage to Sharon, his discovery of his potential for pornographic films, his activity in the film industry, the showing of the awnings with the titles of his films? His dependence on drugs, his friends, getting drugs from them, contact with Eddie Nash? The group in Wonderland Avenue? The setting up of the robbery, his scrounging drugs from the group? His participation in the murders? His relationship with Dawn, five years, depending on her, a tenderness towards her? His dependence on Sharon, the break-up of their marriage, his continually returning to her - seemingly wanting her to mother him? His confession to Sharon? His going to Florida, his character, self-centredness? His despising of Lind? The interrogations by the police? His going free? How well did the film delineate his character?
9. David Lind, his story, his girlfriend, drugs, the planning of the robbery, his participation? From his own perspective, as described by Holmes? His seeing the information on the television, going to the apartment, seeing the blood? Going with the police and telling his story?
10. Ron Launius and his relationship with Bill? Who was in charge of the group? The Wonderland apartment, the drugs, Ron and his guns and fencing them to Eddie Nash, robbing them back? His friendship with John Holmes? Participation in the robbery - from the perspective of Lind and Holmes? His relationship with his girlfriend? The parties? His boasting? Bill, his being in charge, depending on whose perspective was presented? His girlfriend? The brutality of their deaths?
11. The girlfriends, the woman and her recovery from cancer, their relationships, drugs, death? The woman surviving, in the hospital, unable to give information?
12. Eddie Nash, his Palestinian background, the 50s, his building up his empire in Los Angeles, the clubs? His relationship with Holmes, Holmes giving Dawn to him under the name of Gabrielle? His sexual appetite, drug appetite? His entourage, goons? The robbery, his becoming a victim, experiencing the violence? The retaliation? Its violence? His goons?
13. Sam Nico and Luis and their police work, the interrogations, the visit to the scene of the crime, interviewing Lind, taping him? Interviewing Holmes? The techniques, good cop, bad cop? Their boss, his coming in to interview Holmes, their friendship from the past, his spoiling the interview, their not getting any strong evidence? Holmes and his playing games - asking for coffee down the microphone?
14. Dawn, her age, her life, her explanation of her love for John, her memories? Her friendship with Sharon, Sharon supporting her? Going to Nash as Gabrielle, on the yacht? The police interrogations, her looking at the photos, her lies? Going back to Sharon, Sharon supporting her? The aftermath and her giving information to the police about Holmes?
15. Sharon, her life with Holmes, love for him, the hard life, his decision to go into the porn industry, her separating from him, refusing to go into the witness protection scheme, going to the hotel to see him, refusing to go with him, her friendship with Dawn, supporting her? The scene on the bed with the three - and the memories? Holmes coming to her covered in blood, the bath, her discovering the truth?
16. Sally, doing good, trying to help Dawn - and the type of helpers with religious motivation in Los Angeles?
17. The cumulative effect of watching the story, the different stories, the treatment of the crimes by the papers, television, the police? A case study of life and crime in Los Angeles?
