War

Um...I'm not quite sure how I should describe this film, before telling you what I think. It's not a film about war, or even anything related to war. I'm not sure where this comes from.

Early on, one of the narrators, a young boy, claims the world has ended. If so, one can only assume by a war of some kind. But, if the world has ended, how come people are still walking around? Why is there traffic on the roads? The Gator is confused.

Shot in black-and-white on a hand-cranked camera - how rebellious and cool, I might add - the film lingers and breezes around what appears to be dilapidated, backwoods, hillbilly towns in the middle of nowhere. Think of the location for Wrong Turn.

Nothing much is going on. There is an ancient radio, constantly playing an over-the-top evangelist, a boy and his dog mucking around in the, er, muck, an alcoholic priest who likes to eat and some bearded junkyard guy who wants to blow his brain out.

There is hardly any dialogue, only narration. Much of the sound is from archival and stock recordings. The gritty, flickering, b&w picture looks really cool, but it doesn't capture anything of interest. There is no plot, only a succession of unconnected scenes taped together.

"This is the world after the end of the world, acre by acre, fence by fence, the war is lost" is the tagline. I have no clue as to what it means. The Gator and most of the audience were lost in a very strange world, with no idea what the hell was going on.

Ordinarily I would give a film like this a 1 star rating. But there's something about the raw edge and dream like quality that makes me give it a 2.

In an ideal world, I would love to make some kind of weirdo thingy like this and I adore the fact that it was shot on a hand-cranked camera. I've never seen a movie made with something like that.

I feel even cooler than usual now. And that's mighty cool indeed.