ULEE’S GOLD
US, 1997, 113 minutes, Colour.
Peter Fonda, Patricia Richardson, Christine Dunford, Tom Wood, Jessica Biel, Vanessa Zima.
Directed by Victor Nunez.
Victor Nunez does not make many films but he has made a few of deep emotional force, strong character studies, Gal Young' Un, Ruby in Paradise. Ulee's Gold is a more ambitious film and offers Peter Fonda an opportunity to show skills in a role that his father might have appeared in (and this is a compliment). He is a Florida beekeeper, Vietnam veteran, widower, caring for his granddaughter. The film shows the detail of the family's life but also introduces contemporary themes - a drug-ridden daughter-in-law needing care, the money stolen by his son sought by petty criminals, threatening his family. Nunez' sensitivity makes this material memorable and also shows that violent situations can be resolved in other ways. A surprise, and moving.
1.A small-budget film? The work of the writer-director? Small stories, humane stories? The focus on real life?
2.Real life as a foundation and context for action, for melodrama – characters asked to do things they would never have normally dreamt of doing?
3.The Florida settings, the home? The importance of Ulee being a beekeeper, the film’s great attention to the detail of his work, the bees, the hives, producing the honey? Processes and work? The musical score?
4.Peter Fonda as Ulee, awards and nominations? His name, Ulysses, the overtones of the Odyssey – and the names of Helen and Penelope? The work, his life, Vietnam? His dead wife? His son, in prison, his wife and her addictions, abandoning her children? Looking after his granddaughters? His concern about his son? Set in his ways, the rhythm of his life, the challenges? Connie and her coming to live nearby, neighbour, friend and support?
5.Jimmy, the robbery, in prison? His wife and her addictions, leaving him? His request to his father, to help Helen? To track down the money? Its being hidden in a truck? Eddie and Ferris, the accomplices in the robbery, their personalities, wanting the money, arriving and threatening the family? Taking Helen and the girls?
6.The young girls, their age, their father in prison, their mother and drugs, being cared for by their grandfather? Relating to each other, to the family? The situation, their being taken, their mother returning? Coping, ingenuity?
7.Connie, her personality, new to the area, friendship? Her interest in Ulee? Her concern, freeing the women?
8.Eddie and Ferris, the fights, the threats, the gun and Ulee throwing it in the water? The intervention of the sheriff?
9.Ulee, the search for the money, finding it, his being wounded? His not going in for false heroics? In the hospital, the visit of the sheriff? Not mentioning the issue of the money?
10.Helen, her life with Jimmy, his failures, her children? Her going down, the drugs, addiction, leaving home? Ulee getting her back, the possibility of recovery? Experiencing the threats, with her daughters? Change?
11.The neat ending, the end of Ulee’s odyssey, coming home, the reconciliation with his daughter-in-law, her conciliation with her daughters? A happy ending – appropriate for these characters?
