Manderlay

The art of cinema affords a unique perspective for the audience. Here in the United States we can view ourselves through the eyes of someone from another country and perhaps gain some understanding of how the rest of the world sees us. Danish writer/director Lars von Trier has trained his eye upon America with a trilogy of films. The first was Dogville released in 2003, the second, the one under consideration here, is Manderlay. There are basically two camps regarding von Trier. Since he has never visited the country he examines some may feel that he doesn’t really understand us here in the States. On the other side are those that feel that having never been here von Trier is capable of being truly objective.

Manderlay begins shortly after Dogville ends in the year 1933. Grace Mulligan (Bryce Dallas Howard) is in a caravan of limousines with her gangster father (Willem Dafoe). Dogville has just been burnt to the ground and the gangster is anxious to get on with his numerous nefarious plans. They come upon a remote Alabama plantation, Manderlay and stop for a rest. What they find is somewhat of a surprise, the land is being worked by slaves even though slavery was abolished over 70 years ago. The plantation is owned by an elderly white woman, Mam (Lauren Bacall) and kept in line by her black overseer Wilhelm (Danny Glover). Grace is deeply offended by the injustice. How could Mam ignore the law and still keep human beings in slavery? Her father is far more pragmatic and feels that this is nothing more than a local matter and of no concern for him and certainly no reason to alter his plans. Grace enlists the aid of her father’s henchmen to free the slaves. After Mam dies Grace is determined to try a little social experiment; teach the former slaves about the ideals of freedom and democracy. Grace is sure that she will be greeted as a liberator, welcomed by the people she is freeing from bondage. Instead she discovers that the slaves where very used to their situation and not so anxious to change centuries of tradition. There is a lot of resistance to running the plantation as a business. Now the white men have to perform arduous labor and the blacks will share in the profits.

The irony of this film is it works in a much different fashion in the light of recent global events. The basic questions raised in the film now echo in editorials and are debated on Sunday morning talking head news shows. Can freedom and democracy be forced on a people? Does anyone have the right to change a system that has worked for generation just because their ‘enlightened’ world view sees it as morally wrong? Grace comes from a family where might makes right. Her father is a role model for how the one with the gun gets to decide what is correct. While this is at work on a more subliminal level with Grace it is there. Her first thought is to use her father’s gun men as troops to impose her moral standards on a people that did not ask for liberation. While under the rule of Mam the slaves where feed according to Mam’s Law. This divided the slaves along physiological lines; proud, talking, hitting, pleasing and so on. While this appears on the surface to be the ultimate in white supremacy it turns out that the real author of the rules was the black overseer, Wilhelm. This adds the fact that the so called oppressed people where in some manner responsible for their conditions and not the complete victims that Grace imagines them to be. Grace is the text book liberal and even has a sexual relationship with one of the former slaves. This sub plot appears to have been included more to offend the ‘sensibilities’ of American audiences than to add to the over all narrative.

There where several casting changes made from Dogville for this film. Bryce Dallas Howard replaces Nicole Kidman as Grace while Willem Dafoe now has the role created by James Caan. In both cases the casting decision was value and works in the film. Ms Howard is just now coming into her own as an actress. After films like The Village and Lady in the Water she is beginning her career with intense portrayals. Talent is in her family tree. Her father is the noted child star turned powerhouse director Ron Howard. She has not only inherited her father’s red hair but more importantly his keen eye for the human nature of a character. Although the actions taken by her character Grace are proven to fail Ms Howard plays her with integrity. Grace is certain that she is doing the morally right thing and is undeterred by the initial set backs. It is difficult to play a character of such certainty without become preachy but Ms Howard does it and does it very well. I really can’t think of any performances by Willem Dafoe that I did not enjoy. Most of his early career was as a character actor; playing parts that are almost part of the background. This has given him the experience to take on any role, large or small and give his all to it. He portrays Grace’s father as a flawed man but one who loves his daughter. He can be as loving to her as he is brutal to those that oppose him. Danny Glover usually plays a police officer, characters that have authority and the legal right position. Here he uses that as the overseer. He administers the law of the plantation over other black men with a surety that it is for the general good of all concerned.

Lars von Trier employs his Danish minimalism as he did in Dogtown. There are virtually no sets used in the film. You can occasionally spot the lines to demark where the sets would be placed if von Trier had opted to have them. He creates the emotional level of the film with adept use of lighting, using light and shadow in place of a physical environment. In this film the starkness works. It is almost as if von Trier is deconstructing the complex themes into their most fundamental parts.

Once again the Independent Film Channel brings us interesting and engaging films that most people would not normally be aware of. They are dedicated to the smaller venue films and in this the have succeeded in great measure. The video is crystal clear 2.35:1. It is not anamorphic which the only downside to the technical specifications is. The Dolby 5.1 audio provides a realistic feel; you are brought into the picture as the audio enfolds you. This is required if you have seen Dogtown. Even if you are new to the von Trier trilogy this film will result in hours of discussion after the credits roll.

Posted 8/8/06