OLD JOY
A-
USA (76 mi) 2006 d: Kelly Reichardt
Sorrow is nothing but
worn out joy
Otherwise known as Old Geezers on Parade to the general
twentysomething viewing public, made for just $40,000 with music by Yo La
Tengo, this is just a terrific indie film, amazingly free of narrative content,
much of which must be supplied by the viewer, where the more you know about these
guy’s backgrounds yourself, the more you’ll get something out of the film, as
you’ll understand all the references, visual and otherwise, which include treks
through the lush forests of the Cascade mountains outside Portland, Oregon, as
two guys (Will Oldham and Daniel London) go in search of the Bagby Hot Springs
(described as GERRY of the Redwoods!!!).
But it’s an unusual subject matter, the aftermath of the 60’s
counterculture, seen in light of today’s politics, which must include dealing
with the disillusionment of lost ideals, and the political ruination of
everything you once hoped might come to pass in your lifetime. On the other hand, without the background
knowledge “prior to” entering the theater, this may be perceived as a stoner
flick, as people behind us were lighting up a bong in the small theater of the
Music Box. There was very little
dialogue spoken in the entire film, hardly anything “between” these two guys,
just rambling fragments of thoughts which never really lead anywhere, which
suggests an interesting disconnection between who we were and who we are.
This could be called a macrobiotic style of filmmaking, like
a trip to one of those Big Sur Esalen Institute retreats as it beautifully
blends into the character of the gentle Oregon slopes and is an apt reflection
of West coast mentality, which has never veered far from the 60’s
counterculture mentality, but has also never found a comfort zone in society at
large. This is a deceptively subtle film whose loudest voice is its silences,
harking back to a time when we really used to “listen” to one another with an
almost insatiable appetite, and had plenty to offer in terms of relevant
cultural insight and point of view, which has been curbed through the passing
of time, subsided into the distant, faraway regions of the current political
landscape and been deemed irrelevant in the sound bite, talk radio and/or blog
opinion instant script that has become the vehicle for today’s news.
There’s a beautiful minimalist understatement of this
journey into the woods, which allows us to see and feel the distinct flavor and
landscape of the Oregon Cascade mountains, which are mere hours away from the
Portland city dwellers. In California, Oregon, and Washington, there are
major urban areas, yet within an hour or so in any direction, one can immerse
themselves into mammoth wilderness regions which are filled with naturalistic
wonders to explore. In the 60’s, groups would routinely leave the cities
either hitchhiking or in VW buses and take expeditions into these outback
regions to avoid the reach of the law, to get high, strip naked, and just let
themselves go in an uninhibited expression of being free without having to
worry about being subjected to conformist “straight” thinking. Here one
dropped out of conventional society, leaving behind the prejudices,
preconceived notions, judgments, and other inherently self-centered,
short-sided views and dropped into a completely different state of mind, where
one communed with nature and developed a relationship with planet earth.
Questioning and even rejecting the validity of what people routinely heard on
television, in the news, from leading political figures, and even what we were
being taught in schools or at home, was pretty common in those days, and what
was advocated instead was not some grandiose, violent scheme to overthrow the
government, though some went that route, but instead each was responsible for
discovering their own personal journey, for finding their own way. OLD
JOY reflects on this philosophy, this search for internal wisdom through
peaceful means, by dropping the ordinary hang ups, the stress-induced
competitive urge to succeed at all costs, or to be judged by age old
traditional religious values that reflect worth only through work.
Unfortunately, the political process since the early 70’s
has tainted the playing field through a series of unending dirty tricks,
negative ads, and out and out lies, which leaves a populace so cynical and
suspicious of anyone’s political motives that Jesus Christ himself, should he
return, would probably be labeled a “liberal,” or some other irrelevant label,
which only serves to diminish his real value in the eyes of others. This
is standard operating procedure for the past 30 years, leaving many anxious and
confused as to where they stand, as what they believe in has been pulverized by
the press and political pundits to such a degree, factionalized into single
interest groups, demoralized into believing there’s really no hope anymore,
pitting one against the other, isolating them into mere afterthought, until
eventually we are led to conclude that only the interests of the really rich
are represented in Congress anymore.
All of this build up of resentment and disillusionment is a
backdrop for the film, and never mentioned outright, only suggested through
hints and small gestures of the beautifully detailed characterizations, but
provides the emotional core that generates the urge for these two long lost
buddies, each apparently heading in different directions in their lives, to get
back together again for a two-day venture into the woods as they search for the
remote seclusion of the Bagby Hot Springs. One is married and about to
become a father while the other remains something of a wanderlust, wary of ever
being tied down. Yet even as they meet, they rarely look one another in
the eye, or hold any discernable conversation at length, but remain hidden
behind their own invisible veneers, continually protecting themselves not from
one another, but from having to admit their own disillusionment with
themselves, failing to live up to their own set of ideals, and from having to
acknowledge the vacuous emptiness that continuously gnaws at them just under
the surface each and every passing day.
The spirit of the film is amazingly tender and oblique,
beautifully shot by Peter Sillen, drawing an odd similarity to the missed
connections in Wong Kar-wai’s HAPPY TOGETHER (1997), even to the way they get
lost en route and discover their road map is all but useless, but this is a
smaller, simpler vision suggesting we’ve never before reached this particular
fork in the road, this uncertainty about the future. There is the
possibility that the film is entirely too spacious, that many younger viewers
are unfamiliar with the kind of communal hope and idealism that once existed,
in which case the slim narrative may feel like a stoner comedy with an air of
eloquent 60’s nostalgia, none of which was actually shown in the film, yet
there are peculiar, unmistakable references, especially to West coast 60’s
mentality, which anyone who’s ever been there understands. But
disillusionment is key, the internalized heartbreak from having to accept so
much less from our nation and from ourselves than what we had once hoped is a
central message of this film, how far we are from the kind of world we once
dreamed of, as we continue to be divided and disconnected from the planet and
from one another in ways that only leave us more emotionally paralyzed and
incapacitated.
