Manderlay
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Movie Reviews of Manderlay
Movie Review: Excellent thought-provoking film... Barebones DVD from IFC
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent film. In the second installment of his proposed American trilogy, Lars von Trier, touches on the subjects of racism, cultural blindness, hypocrisy and self-righteous superiority. In its way, it points at why America is simultaneously admired and despised the world over. Famously, Lars von Trier has never set foot in America (afraid of flying). So his views are the views of a foreigner, specifically a northern European steeped in the liberal tradition. Some will see that as a negative. I think it is refreshing for Americans to see how America is viewed from abroard, from someone unencumbered by its cultural baggage. What he shows is the ugly side of America. But von Trier's comment is by extension a critique on all humanity; for what Americans are here accused of, is equally applicable to other nations, races and creeds.
The story is simple. It carries on chronologically from Dogville. After destroying the godforsaken town in the bloody climax of the previous film, Grace (previously played by Nicole Kidman, and now by Bryce Dallas Howard) drives homeward with her father and his convoy of gangsters. They chance upon a plantation in Alabama where slavery is still practised, some 70 years after abolition (this is 1933). Grace gets it into her mind to free the slaves and to teach everyone, former slaves and Masters alike, about the new creed of equality and democracy. With the aid of her gun-toting gangsters, she preaches and enforces her new religion on the "benighted" people of the plantation. Of course, out of the seeds of her good intent, come no good at all.
The film can be viewed on many levels. The simplest is to take it as a commentary on racism. Passing a decree does not abolish racism. Nothing changes as long as hearts and minds don't change. Preaching empty words will not alter generations of abuse and hatred. On the flipside, it also poses the question: why do certain groups of people remain so backward and unsuccessful? Is it because of their past or themselves? It's a question that reaches beyond the black/white divide in America, to vast swathes of the world, from Africa to the Middle-East, where societies and nations have floundered and where they all invariably blame their past and their "victimhood" at the hands of white colonisers. Do they bear no responsibilty for their own fates? Is it simply easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for one's own actions? The abdication of responsibility is sadly an all too American trait, but it is by no means confined solely to America.
We are also called to ponder on Grace's self-righteous attempt to free the slaves and more importantly, her attempt to force them into seeing things her way. Apart from its obvious ridiculing of the "do-gooder" abolitionists, and by extension, the superior white man with his constant chant of equal rights and democracy, it is also a comment on present day politics. America's actions across the world instantly spring to mind. Its endless, simple-minded attempts at interfering with and changing others to fit its own image, is today mirrored by other world actors; newly rising powers, increasingly resurgent religions, all of which similarly want to remake others into their own image - their prime justification being: "I'm better than you, so you'd best do as I say." It is a sad comment on humanity as a whole.
Like Dogville, this is a very dark film. It is not light entertainment. It is also not cinéma vérité. Do not expect realism. It does not aspire to historical accuracy. It should be taken more as a parable than a history lesson. It is wide open to interpretation. I especially liked Brandon Medford's analysis (further down) which I thought was spot-on. And I agree with him that to look at this solely as a film about slavery or racism is to impoverish the work.
Manderlay follows in the Dogme 95 tradition of Dogville. It is Dogme brought to its extreme conclusion - a filmed stage-play with minimalist sets, with actors acting and pantomiming on stage. If you don't think you can sit through a 2-hour-plus stage play, this film is not for you. Acting is fine overall. I wasn't affected by the change of cast. Lars von Trier's films are not centered around stars, although Nicole Kidman was the ideal choice for Grace.
The DVD from IFC is totally bare save for the film. It is beautifully transferred in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio (enhanced for widescreen TV). Colors are accurate, black levels are perfectly set. The DD 5.1 soundtrack is front-centered and is clear enough although I turned to the optional English subtitles after a while.
Note: There is a very graphic scene of copulation, even more explicit than the rape scene in Dogville.
Movie Review: excellent and provocative
Summary: 5 Stars
[Caution: some plot points revealed in this review.]
Manderlay is yet another brilliantly transgressive, widely misunderstood film from Lars von Trier, who has made a name and a career out of messing with audience's heads, emotions, and expectations. The film is set at an Alabama plantation where, seventy years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slavery still thrives. The horrified Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who arrives in Manderlay after her escape from Dogville (the previous film in von Trier's trilogy), decides to "emancipate" the slaves, and establishes a system of democracy in which everyone is now "free." However, the former slaves simply trade one form of institutionalized oppression for another--a new system that calls itself freedom but under which nothing has really changed.
Through the character of Grace, von Trier criticizes bleeding heart white liberals (and, during the 1800's, many abolitionists were white women like Grace, who often felt more pity than respect for slaves). Grace seems to be motivated to help the slaves by guilt, pride, or a sense of self-congratulation rather than a sincere desire to help them improve their lot. Thus von Trier mocks white liberals who advocate for human rights because doing so makes them feel better about themselves. This form of "help" continues to objectify underprivileged people and denies them any real agency. Hence, Grace teaches the freed slaves how to vote, but then disagrees with one of their verdicts. Again, she is less interested in allowing others to think for themselves than in forcing others to think like *her*. As in Dogville, von Trier shows how "good intentions" can backfire if not carried out with caution. Eventually, perhaps inevitably, Grace has come to adobt the rhetoric of the slaveowner, and in the last scene resorts to whipping the former slave whom she initially intended to "emancipate."
This is not to say that von Trier is arguing that slavery is good, or that it should never have been abolished, or that all liberals are evil. Rather, von Trier uses this film to expose the complexity of America's racial hypocrisies. The Emancipation Proclamation technically "freed" slaves, yet Americans' ideologies about race were not changed. As a result, black people have continually struggled to survive in American society, as von Trier disturbingly reminds us in a montage of photos of impoverished and tortured black Americans which plays over the end credits. A group of people cannot really call themselves free if they are still imprisoned by racist institutions that deny them true subjecthood.
This film also borrows many ideas from post-colonial theory, mainly the idea that a group of oppressed people remain oppressed as long as they are not able to act, think, or decide for themselves, which is precisely what happens in the film as a white woman attempts to "act in the best interests" of the black people of Manderlay. Grace views black people as a humanitarian cause rather than as individual subjects, and therefore does not encourage them to think for themselves or make their own mistakes.
Once again, the film reveals some unpleasant truths about race in America. The film has undoubtedly caused controversy among many viewers (which, as many have pointed out, is exactly what von Trier intends). Viewers may be tempted to jump to conclusions or knee-jerk reactions while watching this film rather than thinking about it critically. Again, this is what von Trier, a great manipulator, wants from his audience--to shock and anger them. It is tempting to write Manderlay off as a racist film simply because, for example, it contains a scene in which a white woman whips a black man, and another scene in which the former slaves explain that they would rather be slaves than be free (or rather, live under Grace's version of freedom). However, the critical viewer will be able to see that von Trier endorses neither abuse of black people nor slavery in this film. Rather, he causes us to question racism in America and how efforts to eliminate it have been, unfortunately, mostly ineffective.
Movie Review: There Is No More Masterful an Auteur Practicing Today
Summary: 5 Stars
Lars Von Trier does the seemingly impossible and improves upon the first part of the America trilogy, _Dogville_, here. I shudder to think what he will achieve with the third and concluding part. Let me suggest that you get your hands on this movie immediately and you will at least know what direction Grace is heading at the end of this second masterpiece in Trier's cinema of cruelty. The stakes are going to be REAL high in part three!
Where to begin? And where to end? I'm not going to trouble you with many details here because you should just watch this piece without any prejudice. Let's just say it's an overwhelming piece that attempts to induce the truth through art. And it's the first film where I've ever wept at the final credits. Yes, if you've seen _Dogville_, you know the astonishing nature of the credits on that one. Those were the first film credits I ever wrote a term paper on. It only gets better. And, no, I'm not being ironic. Lars Von Trier is at such a high level of narrative and film-making craft that his credits are masterworks in themselves.
So I'm just going to say that this is about the legacy of slavery that is still with us to this day--if we are to give credence to _Manderlay_, and we better, we are also led to believe that slavery's aftermath is something we will not be able to truly smooth over any time soon (think of the Jews in Egypt). Like in _Dogville_, nobody in this allegory of American (and, actually, Western) history ends up looking rosy at the end. This is a panoramic and uncomfortable portrayal of Nietzsche's dictum of "human, all too human" that none of us really ever escape, not even those of us with sterling intentions. This allegory is told and filmed with such amazing values that one can't help but wonder how Von Trier's movies don't even make it to theaters in Tallahassee (where I live), while indie war-horses like _Thank You for Smoking_ stay in our art-house for months (nothing against it, but I don't believe it has quite the amount of what the French call jouissance to it--this is the jouissance that really transforms, more than a good laugh--this is the laugh that laughs at the laugh--the risus purus as again, Nietzsche, would put it, that which laughs at misfortune--the most sorrowful and ironic feeling imaginable). The Academy didn't nominate _Dogville_ and I'm guessing they won't nominate this one, either, though nothing I've seen this year comes close to touching it in sheer scope and execution. Well, Trier can look forward to a lifetime achievement award in several decades, putting him in the company of other Oscar-less impresarios who received that award like Scorcese and Altman.
While bleak terms like "existential" should come to mind when discussing and watching Trier, don't get the idea that it's all passed off as meaningless. Nothing could be more meaningful, it's just the feeling of helplessness that he prods us to examine, document, do anything but maintain the status quo with that we have done for too long. This puts him at the helm of Western art of any kind that gets pegged with words like "existential": Beckett, Lispector, Sartre. Despite the hopelessness we may derive from these masters, we often leave their works on fire more than ever to "make things new."
So, really, here's what we're talking about here. This is a film by a middle-aged man at the height of his powers. What can we look forward to when he's going gray? Films with the resonance (and popularity?) of _Gangs of New York_ and _The Aviator_ are certainly not out of the question as he is making films of the same level now (America just ignores them because they hit too close to home--if ever a person was ahead of his time, it's Trier). So buy this now, don't bother with rental. You'll be able to say you knew all about this kind of greatness while the rest of the American movie establishment and public largely had its head in the sand. As good as movies get!!!
Movie Review: The Truth is Beautiful...
Summary: 5 Stars
A serious and straight up look at the AFfrican Holocuast and its after effects. Passionate acting by all characters, but Issach De Bankole stands out. This is probably the first movie ever presented that bluntly brings into focus the psychological effects of the brutality of American Slavery. An effect the perpetrator and the victim chooses to forever ignore and forget, even though they both are still suffering from its effects to this day.
Unfortunately it took a foreign director to make the film, most likely because no director, black or white, in america has the guts to make such a provocative film that tells the ugly truth about this country, sans Spike Lee's BAMBOOZLED or Haile Gerima's SANKOFA. This trio of films are the only films that attempts to touch the realm of truth and not fantasy when it comes to telling the story of the AFrican Holocaust that took place on the continent of North America and its after effects....
But like BAMBOOZLED & SANKOFA, MANDERLAY will be largely ignored, particularly by those who it indicts. And sadly, by the masses of African Americans who would chose to forget the detrimental effects that peculiar institution had on us. And just like the slaves at Manderlay, we chose to stay on the plantation with Mam. HR40.
As a political statement in comparison to the Iraq war, the film makes an acutely accurate statement; but the comparison can be made to any foreign intervention that America has stuck its nose in.
Movie Review: The second of one of the greatest trilogies
Summary: 5 Stars
This review isn't intended to be particulary helpful but to rather to shed light on one of the greatest most unrecognized works of art in many years. Dogville and Manderlay are challenging and controversial films but so rewarding when watched by the right people. Being a film lover who watches close to 200 films a year, I revel in films that have an edge to them by taking a new approach to story telling and filmmaking. Trier is an incredible talent who has produced two refreshingly beautiful films that remind sometimes disillusioned film lovers like myself of the reason why I watch and love films and of what great heights films have the potentional to reach. I definately recommend anyone who sees films as an art form to watch this movie and its predecessor Dogville.