WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP A film review by Steve Rhodes Copyright 2000 Steve Rhodes RATING (0 TO ****): ***
Think it was better back in the old days? Wish you could chuck your suburban home and get away from the hassles of modern life by moving to small town America?
After watching James Marsh's engrossing "documentary," WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP, you may think again.
The movie is based on Michael Lesy's unusual book, which tells a series of stories about the remote town of Black Falls River, Wisconsin. Both the movie and the book use newspaper accounts of a string of macabre events along with striking still pictures to tell the mesmerizing story of a town gone mad. From 1890 to 1900, an incredible number of tragedies and crimes struck the little town. With extensive live recreations along with judicious use of period photography, the movie weaves a creepily fascinating mystery.
The pièce de résistance of WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP is Ian Holm's (THE SWEET HEREAFTER) omnipresent narration, which is taken directly from the newspaper accounts of the time. Of one murderer, for example, the narrator explains casually, "he had what is known as 'the criminal ear' -- thick and standing out from the head." After everyone in the audience laughs at this ridiculous wives' tale, watch their eyes dart about the room looking for just such ears.
People committed suicide, youngsters killed other people young and old, epidemics struck, arsonists attacked, people were mistakenly buried alive, and all manner of calamity struck this unfortunate tiny town. The favorite among the lunatics of the period has to be one Mary Sweeney (Jo Vukelich) who spent her time breaking windows -- lots of windows. She is reported to have broken over $50,000 worth. She said that she always used cocaine afterwards "to sooth her nerves."
The movie, mainly in black and white, switches to color in the few scenes set in present day Black Falls River. Although at first the town seems as normal as can be, the filmmaker increasingly plants doubts in our minds. By the end we begin to suspect some unknown, sinister force is at work still.
WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP runs 1:16. It is not rated but might be R for violence and would be fine for teenagers.
The film will be playing as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival (http://www.sfiff.org), which runs April 20 to May 4, 2000. It does not currently have a United States release date.
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews