Wisconsin Death Trip
by James Marsh
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ian Holm, Jeffrey Golden, Jo Vukelich, John Schneider (III), Marilyn WhiteDirector: James Marsh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 76 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Home Vision Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Wisconsin Death Trip
Movie Review: I think the townsfolk saw the documentary
Summary: 2 Stars
Based upon authentic yet dry turn of the century (1890-1900) news reports from Black River Falls, a small town in northern Wisconsin, "Wisconsin Death Trip" is a brutally slow, albeit odd trek through the various details of seeming insanity affecting the area. Interwoven with the century-old pictures shot by a professional photographer named Charles Van Schaik, fairly recent video footage is juxtaposed to display advancement and normalcy of today's Black River Falls. The old photos have a creepy tone considering several are at funerals of dead infants and toddlers, and the rest clearly display the harsh differences between contemporary life and that of folks 100 years ago.
It's probably safe to say that the majority of the unanticipated "insanity" was caused by the stressors of ignorance, poor education, religious intolerance, and xenophobia. Some jilted lovers committed suicide - which was considered by at least one judge to be an untreatable condition - while others were committed to the insane asylum, a fix-all, end-all cure for confused physicians of the day. It's clear that the doctors in the area knew nothing about Circadian cycles, or anything really, considering the number of people who were depressed and/or crazy, and another who was buried on accident. Of course, several conditions were lumped under what was called malignant diphtheria, something that led to the deaths among several children.
All of this is enough, but when superstition and religion brought about talk of witches, vexations, devils, Ouija boards, and something called the "criminal ear", it's understandable that there are problems with young people and to the town elders, just about everything is evil or crazy in some way.
With all of that said, there was some generally strange stuff happening during that time. Call it dementia, insanity, delirium, or just plain crazy, it's hard to explain the fact that during that short period of time there were multiple suicides, a man who tried to get a train to run him over, a man who took a nap and used lit dynamite as a pillow, widespread infidelity, multiple children who murdered relatives and locals with pistol shots, and several brutal murders of infants and toddlers - specifically a woman who drowned her children in a fit of insanity like Andrea Yates.
I can't say for sure why any of the events happened, and the documentary doesn't really go into an explanation, but if the past events and mass murderers Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer are an indication, there's either something in the water, or living in Wisconsin simply causes insanity. As a Chicago Bears fan, I'll go with the latter theory.
Summary of Wisconsin Death Trip
Inspired by the Michael Lesy book of the same name, Wisconsin Death Trip is an intimate, shocking, and sometimes hilarious account of the disasters that befell one small town in Wisconsin during the 1890s. The town of Black River Falls is gripped by a peculiar malaise and the weekly news accounts are dominated by bizarre talk of madness, eccentricity, and violence amongst the local population. Suicide and murder are commonplace, and people are haunted by ghosts, possessed by devils, and terrorized by teenage outlaws and arsonists.Featuring music by Debussy, Blind Mellon Jefferson, John Cale, and DJ Shadow. Narrated by Ian Holmes.
Inspired by the cult-favorite book by Michael Lesy, Wisconsin Death Trip is an eerily dreamlike film about the moral, spiritual, and physical collapse of a small American town in the 1890s. Stricken by economic depression, harsh winters, and a diphtheria epidemic that decimated the local infant population, the citizens of Black River Falls, Wisconsin--primarily German and Norwegian immigrants hoping for a better life in America--fell victim to a rising tide of insanity, murder, arson, and moral breakdown. By creating moody black-and-white reenactments of the horrid events chronicled in Lesy's book (which includes the haunting vintage photographs of the town's official photographer), director James Marsh conveys, through chilling detachment and the subtly sardonic narration by Ian Holm, the impression of sly bemusement, as if Black River Falls was preordained by fate to become a village of the damned. It's both fiendishly macabre and yet strangely compelling, weakened only by Marsh's suggestion (through color sequences of present-day Wisconsin) that things have never really changed since those creepy, ill-fated days when death was seemingly everywhere. Apart from that half-baked attempt at irony, Wisconsin Death Trip is a film you won't soon forget. --Jeff Shannon
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