SOUTHLAND TALES

US, 2006, 150 minutes, Colour.
Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Miranda Richardson, Holmes Osborne, John Larroquette, John Lovitz, Norah Dunne, Wallace Shawn, Beth Grant, Zelda Rubinstein, Lou Taylor Pulci, Justin Timberlake.
Directed by Richard Kelly.

This is a big show – very big. It is a bumptious show – exceedingly bumptious. It is long (160 minutes), loud, confounding and confusing in its plot, touching on all kinds of current social issues and is set, after an atomic explosion in Texas, in Los Angeles, 2008, with George W. Bush still president, an election coming up, many rueful memories and regrets about the war in Iraq (which has been extended to Syria).

It is definitely not for your average older viewer! This is post-modern big screen comic strip stuff.

It is based on graphic novels. This is what needs to be asked: what is the graphic novel genre of film-making doing to us and, especially, to its devotees? The stories are not particularly literary or, even, literate. The graphics are big, bold, direct, often over the top. The film versions generally feel that subtlety of character is not a priority. Nor is intelligent and emotional logic a prerequisite. This is a larger-than-life, tongue-in-cheek world, full of irony, camp humour, spoofing of conventions and a kind of four letter amorality that struts its stuff.

Of course, this is not all bad. It is sometimes hard to take. And, too often, its success is hit and miss as it spray-and-scatterguns its targets.

This is the work of Richard Kelly who made his cinema impact with Donnie Darko as well as with his second chance in restoring the original to Donnie Darko, the director’s cut.

Donnie Darko was both apocalyptic and absurd, a satire of the US that demanded that society be better than this. Kelly has continued in this vein with few holds barred. We have a nuclear explosion in Texas, Neo- Marxist cells ready to overthrow capitalism and governments. We have Bush appointees to a new controlling department, USIdent which has everyone and everything under surveillance. It has movie stars used as subjects for experiments, bimbos who invent businesses and host trash TV interviews on Venice Beach – ‘the future is going to be more futuristic’. We have Iraq war veterans who are trigger happy and psychologically disturbed. Mad scientists, their mothers and more. There are quite a lot of references to the Book of Revelation.

Sets are often spectacular. Effects are impressive. The cast, led by Wayne Johnson (formerly The Rock), Seann William Scott and Sarah Michelle Gellar has lots of character performers from Christopher Lambert to Miranda Richardson, John Larroquette to Jon Lovitz. It is surely going to find a cult following. It is yet another reminder of the credulity and paranoia of US conspiracy mentalities.

1.The film based on graphic novels: the intricate plot, the one-dimensional characters, blunt style, loud, action-filled, the graphic novels mentality and its lack of a basic moral code, its psychological inconsistencies? The language and frankness?

2.Richard Kelly and Donny Darko, his interest in comics, graphic novels, the apocalyptic? What was his target audience? What age?

3.The production values: the elaborate sets, special effects, costumes and décor? The musical score, songs, the range of music?

4.The eclectic cast? Suitable for the range of eccentric characters?

5.The prologue, Abilene, Texas, the home movies of the ordinary suburbs, the streets, homes, the celebration, the barbecue, cakes, laughter, children, people caught in homely circumstances? The suddenness of the bomb going off, the nuclear explosion and the consequences?

6.The transition to 2008, President Bush still president, Dick Cheney still in power? The jokes about the Bush administration – and the Kove credit bank? USIdent? The elections in 2008? The California campaigns?

7.Dwayne Johnson and his not being billed as The Rock? His performance? As Boxer Santaros and Jericho Cane (and the significance of the J.C. capitals and his later willingness to give his life and arms outstretched, cross-like? His idea for the film, his disappearance? His imagining the screenplay – based on the reality he experienced? His amnesia? His encounter with Krysta, the sexual encounter? His wife, her being the daughter of the senator? The political implications? His disappearance and reappearance? His wife, her reaction to his coming back, her pregnancy – and the bodyguard being responsible for the baby? Krysta and her plots? His wife and her schemes? The symbolism of their both dancing with him?

8.The mad scientist, his mother, the dwarf assistant, the Asian assistant and her interventions (and making the mistake about who went through the time barrier)? His invention, water, the role of the sea? Karma? His wanting control? His being feted by society? The Germanic background? Social status, the building of the Zeppelin? His plans to disrupt capitalism? The intricacy of his connections and orders? The Zeppelin being blown up?

9.The senator, the crass picture of the American politician? His adviser, shrewdness, warning him? The neo-Marxists and their approach, Cindy and her advice? The attraction to the adviser? The senator and his daughter? His son-in-law? All on board the Zeppelin for the reception? Their all being blown up?

10.USIdent and Miranda Richardson as the senator’s wife, appointed by President Bush to be in control, complete surveillance of every American, her orders, the revolution and her death?

11.Krysta, her porn film background? Her fellow bimbos? Her elaborate plans, the business plan and her explanation? Her television program and current affairs – and the dumbing down of trash daytime interviews and television? On Venice Beach? Her entanglement with Boxer? The sex relationship, the videos? The intricacy of the plot, who had the videos, for what purpose? Payments? Her rivalry with Boxer’s wife? The dance performance on the Zeppelin, their both dancing with Boxer?

12.The neo-Marxists, the group, the many members, all over the country, in Southland? Their motivations? Cindy and her control, deals, her girlfriend? The aftermath of Abilene? Going into action, warning the senator’s adviser? Cindy and her being on the Zeppelin, the embrace with the adviser? Going up in flames?

13.Dora, tough, her associates, the neo-Marxists, her double deals, the tapes, toughness? Her death?

14.The couple and their performing arts, the comedy aspects, their being shot? The performance – and its being real? The assassin? His infatuation with Cindy, rejection, his death?

15.Justin Timberlake as the veteran, the voice-over, the commentary about the war in Iraq? The visuals of the coffins? The significance of the war in Iraq, Justin Timberlake’s song and choreography? The war extending into Syria?

16.Kefauver, the earnest young man, his teaming up with Ronald and Roland Taverner? His ascending on the van? The power of the Taverners? His having the weapon – and shooting down the Zeppelin?

17.The significance of Ronald and Roland Taverner? In black and in white? The abduction? Their accompanying Boxer through the time warp? The mission for Ronald, to be the racist Los Angeles cop? His using the word ‘nigger’? Their both being zapped into new life? Ronald and the set-up, the neo-Marxists? The need for them to meet? The final meeting, the touch, the energy, the vehicle rising into the air? The truth about what had happened to them? Their being saviours? The collaboration with Boxer – and his confrontation of people on the Zeppelin before it exploded, willing to give his life – and the Christ figure imagery?

18.The complexity of the plot? The build-up the Zeppelin, the Big Bang ending? The quotations from literature – especially T.S. Eliot and the world ending with a bang instead of a whimper?

19.The ordinary people of the Southland surviving?

20.The mixture of the comic, the serious? Musical interludes? The sumptuous graphic novel extravaganza?