I certainly hope David Gordon Green returns to this more experimental version of himself—he’s still only in his early 40’s and has 5 archiveable films but going back and reading roger eberts 4 star review of this film and praise for the 29 year old gordon green is a little sad—Ebert says “green has a visual style that is beautiful without being pretty” and I love that—so true- he also picks up on the clear influence of night of the hunter
The “southern gothic” style, here and in George washington (by Gordon Green- his stunning debut) and badlands (malick who is a producer here) is evident in the later works of Jeff Nichols (Gordon Green produced his debut) and beasts of the southern wild
Heavy heavy malick influence
Southern fried folklore
The title sequence is a major achievement- freeze frames, washed out colors (like peckinpah’s work), slow motion photography
A very young Kristen Stewart has a small role
An odd choice to have philip glass to do the score- it’s effective and beautiful times but it’s a little odd seeing it next to a banjo scene of music or organic to the world of the film
Sloppy in parts- we dip into voice over from bell’s character late, and then go into the younger brother’s voice over again even later
Lines like “I’m organizing these books by the way they smell” that could only exist in a gordon green movie
Josh Lucas is a llttle bit like an evil version of Matthew McConaughey in mud. The actors even look alike- though lucas is no MM
Clearly night of the hunter– escaped convict looking for treasure hunting two kids on the run in the south…
Climatic scene shot and directed well with sound effect work and handheld camera
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