FOLLOW ME HOME
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
"Has your life always been riddled with cliches?" Perry (John Allen Nelson) asks disgustedly of one of his fellow civil war reenactors.
The audacious picture, FOLLOW ME HOME, from new filmmaker Peter Bratt is a movie filled with cliches about racism and sexism. The whites are all racists ready to kill the non-whites. Women are shown contempt and scorn, sometimes right to their faces. Even the bonding among the men in this road picture is shattered by one of the Chicano's racism toward the lone African-American male.
FOLLOW ME HOME is a hard picture to review, especially after I met Peter Bratt, its eminently likable writer and director. He believes the film represents a bold statement about people with different "soul wounds" that they are healing. When he describes his movie, he eyes light up and his expressions are full of warmth and vision. Bratt, being of South American Indian ancestry, understands the prejudices the film attempts to portray. And yet, knowing racism does not guarantee that your first film about it will be worthwhile.
FOLLOW ME HOME tells the story of four muralists, Tudee (Jesse Borrego from LONE STAR), Abel (Benjamin Bratt from CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER), Kaz (Calvin Levels from HELLBOUND), and Freddy (Steve Reevis from LAST OF THE DOGMEN), who leave the West Coast to travel across the continent so they can paint an unauthorized mural on the White House. They see their skin colors of brown, black, and red as metaphors of how they are going to change the white home of the white president.
The focus of the picture is Abel who, as the resident racist and misogynist, becomes so obnoxious that you want to scream at him to shut up. Along the way, they pick up a token female named Evey, Alfre Woodard (PASSION FISH). In contrast to the energetic acting of the male leads, Woodard seems coolly disinterested.
The way to view the muralists' journey, I suppose, is as a poem against racism with these characters all out on a limb raging against a system out to get them. The dialog, however, too often sounds like pseudo-intellectual poppycock.
For some reason, surreal dream sequences made in powder white are used for some of the scene transitions. Their purpose is never clear, and their effect is to slow down the film's pacing.
The film has to be admired for its intensity and risk taking, but for me the only scenes that worked were the few when one of the characters puts down the hatred spewing out of another character's mouth. One scene, for example, has Evey telling Abel that she is a woman and that she refuses to be referred to with the B-word. She reminds him that a woman gave birth to him, that he has a sister, and that he will probably marry a woman. In another, Abel gets his comeuppance for cussing out and utterly abusing a friendly waitress.
Although the film can be hard to sit through, the talent of the cast and crew is obvious. While I do not like what they created, I respect their devotion to their vision. The director said that he went to every major distributor, and they all turned him down. He said their main argument was that this was an art house film and that few minorities go to art houses. Finally, they formed a company, New Millennia Films, solely for the distribution of FOLLOW ME HOME. The picture has become a labor of love for all associated with it. They have been going from city to city showing the film and answering questions from the public and the press. I wish them best of luck with their picture.
FOLLOW ME HOME runs 1:42. It is not rated, but would be R for violence and one scene of crack cocaine usage. The film would be fine for older teenagers. I cannot bring myself to recommend the picture, but I give the movie * 1/2 for its unrealized potential.
**** = A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = Totally and painfully unbearable picture.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: April 21, 1997
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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