DON’T COME KNOCKING

US, 2005, 111 minutes, Colour.
Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polly, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint, James Cameron, George Kennedy, Marlee Shelton, Tim Matheson.
Directed by Wim Wenders.

In a long career that started with road films in Germany in the 1970s, progressed to such crime dramas as The American Friend and Hammer and reached a peak in the mid-1980s with his Cannes Palme d’Or classic, Paris, Texas and his fantasy, hailed in Europe as his masterpiece, . Since then he has made many films, an excellent documentary like The Buena Vista Social Club or 2004’s low-budget critique of the US, Land of Plenty. Wenders has lived in the US since the mid-90s and, finally, seems at home there. Don’t Come Knocking is evidence of this.

He is reunited with playwright Sam Shepard with whom he collaborated in Paris, Texas. Wenders remarked apropos of this film that twenty years have passed, he and Shepard are older and don’t take themselves so seriously. That may be but not only did Shepard write the screenplay this time, he also stars.

The film opens like a Western – and, in fact, a company is shooting a western with veteran action star, Howard Spence (Shepard). Whatever the personal crisis, his thirty years of waste, decline and collapse mean that he rides away from the set to find himself. He eventually and reluctantly does but not without some dead-end moves along the way. (In the meantime, a fastidious insurance agent played by Tim Roth in a very uptight impersonation, is tracking him to get him back to the set.)

The first stop he comes knocking to is home. We get rather a shock (actually more than she does) when he contacts his mother for the first time in thirty years. For older audiences, there is the bonus of seeing Eva Marie Saint, fifty years after On the Waterfront, as his rather cheerful mother. When she gives him some surprise information about a child conceived when he was making his most famous film in Montana, he decides to revisit Butte.

He then comes knocking for his old but neglected and scarcely remembered love. She is played in a feisty, cheerful surface, deep anger style by Jessica Lange (who has been with Shepard in life and on screen for more than twenty years). He is dismayed by his son’s angry reaction and puzzled at first by a young woman carrying an urn with her mother’s ashes. The audience twigs to what this means before he does.

There is an elegiac mood about Don’t Come Knocking, making it a film that older audiences who know what life and crises can mean will appreciate. It is deeply humane and does not opt for too easy and pat answers. The younger audience might identify with the rage of the son (Gabriel Mann) and the wise simplicity of the young woman (Sarah Polley).

This is a modern western, using the landscapes and the symbolism of the West, a T Bone Burnett score and songs, a good cast and a rugged, lived in performance by Sam Shepard speaking his own lines.

1. A piece of Americana? The American past and the west? Contemporary America, the myths of the past, lived out in the present? Cowboys, passing through? Families? Lost families? The themes of reality and the movies and the legends?

2. The work of Wim Wenders, the German perspective, his liking for America and living there? The work of Sam Shepard, as playwright, as screenwriter (for Paris, Texas), as actor? Shepard performing his own lines?

3. The Utah opening, the re-creation of the west? The movie set? Nevada, the casinos? The western town, going to Montana? The landscapes? The faded city of Butte? America and the west and its symbolism?

4. The Hollywood background, a movie about moviemaking? The details of the set, the personnel and the technicians, the director and his hopes, the behaviour of the star? The tantrum? The response of the actress? Issues of insurance? The meeting and discussions? Sutter and the issues of money?

5. The portrait of Howard Spence, on his horse, the ageing cowboy, his having made films for decades? Made a star in a film about Jesse James? His acting like Jesse James? His riding away from the set? Giving away, his horse, changing his shirt with the poor man, ditching his credit cards and mobile phone? His past career and his mother’s scrapbook? The passing of thirty years and his lack of contact with his mother? The headlines in the scrapbook, his going downhill, his own personal disasters, a burnt-out case?

6. Howard and his travel, going through Salt Lake, taking the bus, the clothes, the people? His phoning his mother?

7. The songs, the lyrics? Earl singing and his presence in the bar?

8. Sky, her following Howard, smoke, the ashes, the purpose of her journey, a mysterious young woman? Relationship to Earl?

9. Howard’s mother, the phone call, the absence of thirty years? His father and the headstone, the flowers? Talking with his mother, staying at home, his room and all the memorabilia? The scrapbook? His going out, drinking? Meeting with a school friend? The brawl, the police, getting home?

10. His mother talking with him, the news about Doreen coming to visit her, her son? The impact, his decision to go to Butte? The car, the farewell to his mother?

11. The stopover, his staying at the hotel, the women at the hotel, recognising him? In his room with the three girls? Revelation of the type of man that he had become?

12. The arrival in Butte, the film’s depiction of Butte, the rundown centre? Going to the bar, meeting with Doreen? Her work, glimpsing her, prepared to find out the truth? Her knowing who he was, following?

13. Doreen and the story of her life, her reaction to Howard’s presence, the sardonic touch? Explanation about Earl? Earl, his singing and his voice? Meeting Earl, Earl’s anger at his father? The meeting on the street, the outburst? Earl calling his father a coward, Howard, the kiss, the possibilities with Doreen?

14. Sky, her appearance, following Howard, the urn, the final scattering of the ashes, her return, making the bond with Earl and probably making peace with Howard?

15. Earl’s anger, Earl and his relationship with Amber, their discussions, his throwing the stuff out the window? The fighting with Howard? Howard, his decision to wait for Earl, sitting on the couch in the street? His discussions with Amber?

16. The drink, the car, the Indian and the fifty dollars? The tyres, his return? Sutter and the inquiries, finding him, the handcuffs? Howard’s farewell to each of the significant people in his life?

17. Sky, her speech about home?

18. Earl and his final speech?

19. The character of Amber, at the club, the bed, the anger, the mess, dancing? Her curiosity about Howard?

20. Sutter, his personality, prim English, determined? His trip? The cookies, lying, asking people? Asking Doreen about the potatoes? The water?

21. Travelling with Howard, the radio, the terrible world? History?

22. Howard, his return, finishing the movie?

23. The songs, the lyrics, the tone for the film?

24. The different of the generations, lost opportunities? Learning wisdom? A future?