How American Beauty’s little vortex became a raging Tornado. Movie Review: Gummo (update Dec 15, 2006)
Email This ArticleI somewhat braced myself to see a barrage of the “Wh* Tr*” label being thrown around when reading the reviews of this movie. (A perfect negation to all who claim Americans are comparatively less class-conscious.) If we can get pass additional loaded labels like “Enfant Terrible” and “pretentious,” maybe we can all start to see with a fresh eye. It amazes me that so many people trumpet the greatness of American Beauty, but suddenly go sour when the movie Ricky Fitts would have logically gone off to shoot after he became tired of filming the flying bag in the whirlwind, is right here: Symbolically, that small whirlwind in American Beauty that blew the bag around for a five-minute video has turned into the gigantic tornado that hit Xenia Ohio.
If we can suspend our prejudices at the word “Wh* Tr*” for 90 minutes, then every image becomes a thing of beauty. Is violence bad? Sure. The allusions made from the image of a gang of drunk shirtless guys beating up a chair is scary, I’ll admit it. But it doesn’t make the image itself ugly. In fact, it’s quite gorgeous. One can chose furthermore to look at scenes like these as an ethnographic study from an anthropological viewpoint. Whenever I find that I might get carried away with a little bit of snobbery, all I have to say to myself is this: If Francisco Goya was at that kitchen, if Durer was there, or even Kathe Kollwitz…would any of these artist chose NOT to document the moment?
No.
So we have to be very careful when we react to something as a result of our upbringing and prejudices versus the lifelong search for all that is truly beautiful.
Traditional folk singer Almeda Riddle opens the movie with a wonderfully sung Rooster song. Jacob Sewell (with androgynous supermodel looks) dons bunny ears and embodies the violence dished out on stray cats. (The American Humane Society is noted at the end of the film as being on the premises to monitor and prevent any animal cruelty. Prostethetics were used as well, just in case you were concerned). I especially enjoyed the alternate settings of cruelty to cats (from the boys) and adoration (from girls), and the subsequent crossroad leading to that abstract object of desire disappearing…and ending up in the hands of the bunny boy.
Everything in between is there for the taking. You just have to check your sense of superiority at the door and take every image as it comes.
For years, I’ve always said that a traveler to any country or town always brings a fresh eye to the way natives see the things they have taken for granted. Korine mentions this about the cinematographer Jean-Yves Escoffier as well, saying that the Frenchman sees Nashville with the eyes of wonder (which we should all possess on a daily basis).
Of course, it’s possible to argue that if you look without discrimination, then taste and preferences are all but abolished. You might as well just let the camera roll. That’s a mistake. Taste and preferences (which, in another word is prejudice) are instilled in us. When you come out of an instructive movie like Gummo, you begin to reassess what you have taken for granted (or flat out ignored) all along. Hopefully you’ll see your surroundings with a fresh new eye.