| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Drama |
Based on one of the most controversial events in the United States in the past decade, The Laramie Project centers on the small town of Laramie in Wisconsin, where a young gay man named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left for dead by two of his fellow townsmen, apparently simply because he was gay. The story is based on over 200 interview transcripts which were conducted by a group of Human Rights activists-cum-theater producers/writers. The events which transpired in Laramie forever changed the small town, and blew open the issue of hate crimes and the rampant bigotry in the US.
One of the things that amazes me from this movie is the high profile cast. You may or may not recognize them, even if you do or do not remember which movies they've been in... but they have all definitely been part of one spectaluar or stellar performance. Just to name a few, Christina Ricci was there, along with Steve Buscemi, Jeneane Garrafolo, Joshua Jackson, and so much more. (The ones I remember are that girl who played Jim Carrey's wife in Truman Show, that young cowardly soldier in Saving Private Ryan, Kitty, the mother of Charlotte's ex-husband in Sex and the City, that girl who always plays odd roles in films like Girl, Interrupted, that lady who played the wife of the dude in the Stephen King book to movie The Dark Half, that old lady whom Tom Cruise approached in the Minority Report, that doctor, that towns person, that other gay man... so many of them! And all play integral parts in the movie, even if on screen for only a few minutes at a time...)
The movie was written so well that, even if it did have a documentary feel to it, you would not be thrown off the story at all. You would be angered by the bigotry and hate, awed at the scale and magnitude, and continuously moved by the events that transpire and how resilient the human spirit can be. One of the scenes that stuck with me was the time when the doctor was making an important announcement, and then TV screens of him conducting the announcement began to pop up on screen one after the other, and each screen had a different subtitle under the screen, signifying how widspread and internationally relevant the event became. It was such a subtle editing technique, but you were immediately shown the magnitude of the scope of the issue.
The story was written so well that it was hard to believe that it came from over 200 separate individual interviews. Can you imagine sifting through hours of interviews per person for hundreds of people and making a coherent story or script? Plus take into account the differences of each person's view and opinion, and the time and length of their conversations, from the totally unrelated and mundane interviews to the more relevant and concrete discussions... I mean... wow!
And amazingly, not once did they show Matthew's face. Not once did they show actual footage, or a recreation of the said hate crime. Not once did they subject the viewer to gore or brutality to incite feelings of disgust and empathy. They were able to accomplish moving the viewer without having to show the imagery... it was the story and the characters involved around the story that moved me, inspired me, touched me in some deep and hopeful way.
The technical aspects of this movie alone already defy the impossible... now take into account the message that this movie presents to its viewers, how powerful a medium this 2 hour film can be... and how effective a tool it is for raising awareness and decreasing apathy.
I highly recommend this film for everybody... and when I mean everybody, I make no discrimination. This film is part of human history already, and I believe that if just one person watch this film and pass on the knowledge and wisdom they garner from such a film, then we as human beings can become more mature... This film, apart from being a triumph of achievement in cinematic terms, is also a testament to the growing spirit and strength of humanity.
yes this is a great film, i wrote a contributing-column about this for philippine star months ago. very powerful film
ReplyDeletesorry for the late reply.. didn't see this message right away. And yes I agree that it is a very powerful film. Sad thing about films like this is they always come out after a tragedy like this happens... do we as a human race need wake up calls like this just to realize that something wrong is happening?
ReplyDeleteSayang. I'm glad you wrote about it in a well-known paper. We are doing little part after all... hopefully it's enough to be like ripples in a pond. =D
Do you still write regularly in PhilStar? Which column/section? =D