God's Country

In 1979, French filmmaker Louis Malle goes to the idyllic farming town of Glencoe, Minnesota, 60 miles west of Minneapolis. The friendly people are surprised to find the frenchman filming for public television. It's a town of 80% Germanic origins. On the surface, it's a traditional midwestern utopia where the folks go back generations. Below the surface, the family farm is under stress. In 1985, he returns to finish the film and finds some of the family farms struggling while small town life continues on.

The first 2/3 1979 section is a little slow. It's a lot of various small town folks with some interesting stormy clouds on the horizon. Louis Malle returns 6 years later to find some troubling problems. It's only the last 20 minutes and too short to dig really deeply into the various people. It's reminiscent of the 7-up series. I wish he had expended on the 1985 section and done another one 6 years later. I guess he doesn't have an assistant like Michael Apted who could take over and his death ends any possibility of a follow-up on these folks.

Like Michael Apted's 'Up' films, this film could be used as a marker for the changes in the lives of individuals and of a community. Most of the film takes place in 1979, so the plot summary here is somewhat misleading. Only about 15 minutes of the film covers what eventually happened when Reaganomics had taken its toll on family-owned farms and businesses. The bulk of the film stands on its own as an amazing model for people who might not realize the outstanding qualities that 'everyday life' seems to offer. Somehow, Malle makes the most mundane places and 'unexceptional' people seem quite fascinating. He allows us to focus on things our eyes never notice or that we try not to see (the scene in a home for the aged is particularly powerful). Some might see the charm of this 1979 community as being antiquated even for 1979, but I can only feel great remorse for all of those families that are now working for the Wal-Marts, Costcos and corporate farms. Those quaint town squares are undoubtedly strip malls now, and companies like Monsanto probably own most of the farms. For those who want to see the beginnings of where the American dream failed; this is a good place to begin your search.

It is believed that great directors tend to be amazing success with their fiction films but sometimes fail ignominiously when they make documentaries.In the past,famous French director Louis Malle deprecated India's vibrant cultures and traditions by making some rather insipid documentaries which focused more on India's poverty.In "God's Country", he chose to somewhat denigrate quiet American lifestyle by making an indistinct documentary film about a sleepy town Minnesotan town called Glencoe.God's country is a philosophical yet funny title for a documentary film about an obscure town as it has many churches.This has been suggested as this town's divine element.One of the major problems with this documentary by Louis Malle is that there is an absolute lack of coherency between different scenes.He moves carelessly from one person to another person without bothering to establish a common narrative element.This is the reason why we see a medley of people from Glencoe who have nothing in common.Louis Malle makes his documentary film appear serious by setting it in two different times.However,in both cases his motives are not clearly established.We fail to ascertain whether this is a Frenchman's look at some sleepy part of America or an established French filmmaker's innocent look at America.As a layman would normally consider a documentary film as a burden on the brain,God's country is not so much of a brain damaging exercise as its light subject matter provides for an easy viewing experience.This is the only positive aspect of this documentary film.

I found this film to be the usual French slap in America's face. The camera, all too often, focuses on fat people, on sloppy homes and on tacky rural areas. While the narration seems to sympathize with and admire the small town folks who are introduced to the viewer, the cinematography exploits and demeans them. There were, undoubtedly, thin people to be seen in Glencoe and neat, organized homes, but Malle chose to show us the worst of what was there to be seen.

I can only hope that some American filmmakers will go to France to reveal to the American public its worst elements. I can assure you, as a frequent visitor to France, that all is not well there. Foreign immigrants are not readily assimilated, thus creating severe social inequities. But Americans are not eager to unmask the French for their prejudice toward their own compatriots and their envy toward the U.S., so we're not likely to see films on the subject.

I just love Malle's documentaries. They are so effortless and simple but still so fascinating. I have no idea why this documentary works. It is about Glencoe, Minnesota. 5000 people live there and nothing happens, really. But still Malle manages to make it fascinating and interesting. His love for humanity, even racist or homophobic people, is so overwhelming that you just can't help but also to fall in love with them too.

Malle filmed most of it in 1979. He came back 6 years later to see what had changed. This would have been a good film without the material 6 years later but this small addition makes it great. It may sound like Malle was just doing what has been done in the Up series but in fact it is not. The Up series are about people. Malle's emphasis is not so much on what happened to each person but what has happened to this community. And the change is great. 1985 is the Reagan era and the farmers are suffering. Once a proud community, now no one sees much future at all and parents hope their children will educate them self and do something else than farming.

This documentary is quite relevant today. Our financial crises today started because of what was happening then. Just take a look to these final words in the film, spoken by an older lawyer from the town (in 1985):

"Well I have high hopes for this country because the things that are going on right now can only be characterized in my mind as an obsession with greed. And a nation doesn't live long with that obsession. And particularly a democracy that... There's good - there's good - a lot of good in this country and a lot of good people and they aren't gonna - they aren't gonna subscribe to this philosophy of greed that's going on now. It's horrible."

Unfortunately it took more than 20 years and a hell of a headache before that happened.