DALTRY CALHOUN
US, 2005, 100 minutes, Colour.
Johnny Knoxville, Elizabeth Banks, Juliette Lewis, Sophie Traub, David Koechner, Kick Gurry, Andrew Prine, Beth Grant.
Directed by Katrina Holden Bronson.
Daltry Calhoun is a small film, an American fable from the South. What is surprising is the performance by Johnny Knoxville in the title role, rough and exaggerated at first, fulfilling audience expectations, but, as the film develops, a more real and likeable character.
The focus is on June, his young daughter with May, Elizabeth Banks. May and Daltry are together when she is 14 but her mother intervenes and he leaves. Over the years, mother and daughter have looked for him and finally find him, prosperous, well respected in the town, developing golf courses. However, he is in financial straits, selling all his furniture. He employs Frank, Australian Kick Gurry, to remedy the growth of weeds in the golf courses which he relies on the for his finances.
June, Sophie Straub, is a precocious young woman, with a talent in music, wanting to go to study in Juilliard. She realises the situation and relates well with Daltry, is sexually provocative with Frank, becomes friends with Flora, Juliette Lewis, a widow who works at Daltry’s shop and who will marry him, becoming June’s stepmother. There is an unexpectedly sympathetic performance from David Koechner as Doyle, the handyman around the place who cannot read, with June teaching him.
The film was directed by Katrina Holden Bronson, adopted daughter of Charles Bronson.
1. An American fable? Real, surreal?
2. The settings in the American South, southern story, characters? Tennessee?
3. The locations, homes, the towns, the mansion, the golf courses? Shops? The musical score?
4. The title, the character, played by Johnny Knoxville, the first impressions, changing, prosperity?
5. The voice-over, June and her perspective? Origins, with her mother, on the move, settling down, her age, wanting to go to Julliard? Her appearance, glasses, plaits? Skill with music? The attraction to Frank, talking with him, the sexual approach, his veering away? Her relationship with her mother, her mother’s illness and death?
6. Her mother, young, knowledge of literature, with Daltry at age 14, the tough mother, her challenging him, his leaving, she left with her daughter, their wandering, discovering where he was, the return, the bond with Daltry? With Flora, talking with Flora, going to the shop, the two women bonding? Her death?
7. Frank, his job, expertise, the golf course, the grasses, the elimination of the problem, June and her attraction, his not wanting to respond to her? The solution and his going?
8. Daltry, issues and money, his plans, the golf courses, his respect in the town, the people in favour? His financial losses? The assistants, taking the furniture, selling everything? Daltry’s fortunes going down? Frank and success, the recovery?
9. Doyle, slow, his place in the household, with each of the characters, June, teaching him to read and write? His help?
10. Flora, in herself, widow, a strong personality, work in the shop, the attraction to Daltry, the good relationship with June’s mother, June and their being able to relate to Flora?
11. Final success, a fable where good can come from great difficulties?
