the groundhog day project

Immediately I must wonder if Kevin is as bad as Doyle from Dutch . Or he will be, as he is already prone to violence. Despite his badness, though, the movie does a good job of setting everyone else against him. It’s his fault, but you can almost forgive him because he is a kid. As for the movie, Home Alone is not a movie I would normally equate with having much depth... Then again, neither was Planes, Trains & Automobiles or Dutch or just about any of the slasher films I watched in October. But, I suppose the point to this blog, quite often, is that every film has depth. Even the most shallow-seeming, simplistic piece of entertainment tells us something about us for watching it, if nothing else. I am not suggesting that Home Alone is the most shallow-seeming film. There are plenty of films shallower. This film does a great job of setting up later scenes early on. The old guy with the shovel is introduced right away, as is one of the wet bandits, posing as a cop. When Kevin ...

Roger Ebert tells me Hannah and Her Sisters is the best Thanksgiving film. I have never seen it. I mentioned a while back that I am not the biggest fan of Woody Allen. I’ve seen a few of his films, I can appreciate what he does, but I’m just not all that enamored with it... with them. Similarly—and I think I share this with Ebert—I can appreciate what Peter Hedges is doing in Pieces of April even though I think the final product is flawed. In a way, it might be because that film is inherently flawed that it is also quite endearing. Like family, like Thanksgiving, the twisted heart within the happy occasion is the horribleness possible when family get together in large numbers. None of us is perfect. And, family or not—blood being thicker than water and all that—get us together and insist on hanging out as if our relations have not been strained time and time again by arguments and disagreements, as if some of haven’t disowned others (or wanted to), as if we haven’t had numerous in...

I We start Dutch in the parking outside the mansion where the party’s going on. We’re out with the attendants. Then, we rise up over the action and CUT TO inside, we’re still hovering. Like spies, like we shouldn’t be there, and we shouldn’t. The people who should be at a party like this just won’t be watching this movie. And, that’s ok. As long as we like class division to perpetuate itself... I’m reminded of Levine’s (1992) piece about the “Folklore of Industrial Society.” Popular cinema divided the masses. Levine cites Gans’ (1962) research into the television-viewing habits of 1950s Italian working-class families in Boston’s West End; Gans found that, “Although the television was on constantly, actual viewing was highly selective and was structured to filter out themes inimical to the life of the peer group and to accept those characters and situations that confirmed the group’s values” (p. 1380). We don’t just accept whatever culture throws at us. We are selective, often to re...

Woman: Libby, this is Natalie Standish. Natalie is Reed’s... Oh, is it alright to...? Natalie: Say that Reed got me pregnant when I was a barhop at your country club, married me to avoid scandal, spent the next ten years sucking the life out of me, got bored with me, dumped me, and screwed me in court? Sure, go ahead. Woman: Uh... Natalie is Reed’s ex-wife. In the modern parlance, a screenwriting fail . But, nevermind that. I just had to rewind a couple times to check a mistake. So, a dozen minutes or so into the movie, Dutch is preparing food while he and Natalie discuss what to do about Doyle. Dutch cuts chicken with a knife at first then resorts to a cleaver, then puts the mangled chicken along with some potatoes and vegetables in a pan... and CUT TO timer, CUT TO those same ingredients in a nice dish. Natalie comments, “Smells good.” But, they’re sitting in a restaurant. They were in a house kitchen a moment ago, and then a restaurant. It’s not an editing error but something b...

I find it interesting that Dutch Dooley and Del Griffith are both men used to being on the road. Neal Page and Doyle Standish, on the other hand—they aren’t used to it. For them, the road is a foreign place, somewhere beneath them. Neal’s house isn’t quite as big as the Standish home, but both are definitely a class or two above the likes of Dutch Dooley or Del Griffith. Speaking of class, the classist overtones in Dutch are quite deliberate. Consider the opening sequence at the fancy party. Not only is it strange that Natalie was invited after she has been divorced out of the club for a while now, but it is strange that she would show up when they did invite her. Really, there is no reason for her to be there in-story; rather, she is there simply so we can get some awkward information dumping out of the way quickly. Natalie is not really high-class, she got knocked up into it. So, there’s hope for Doyle—who Tim at the Antagony & Ecstasy blog says John Hughes “absolutely detest...

Dutch is not an awful movie. I may have oversold its horribleness. Longtime follower of this blog, Maolsheachlann replied to yesterday ‘s blog: “This movie sounds truly awful, and looks awful, and even the title is awful!!” No, no, it’s just very much a movie of a specific time, a specific mindset. It deliberately offers us the character of Reed Standish (Christopher McDonald) just so the worst actions of Dutch Dooley (Ed O’Neill) don’t seem so bad. I mean, really, the whole kidnapping thing, the pellet gun shooting, the abandonment on the side of the road—Dutch means well. Plus, Doyle (Ethan Embry (nee Randall)) is a little jerk who in terms of what’s spiritually a 1980s film, deserves it. Doyle is the kind of kid who would grow up to be the villain in a whole bunch of 80s movies, the upper-class douche who thinks he’s better than everybody else. Dutch, whatever his style, is there to give Doyle some comeuppance. It’s notable that Dutch has only a 14% from critics on Rotten Tomato...

Ed O’Neill’s Dutch Dooley is a strange character. He used to drive a cement truck—Reed refers to him as a “truck driver”—but now he owns a construction company. That is not the strange part. He can cook a pretty good meal—I don’t know what it is he’s making early in the film, but it seems to be deliberately complicated and fancy just to let us know that he can cook, he’s better than the working-class schmo he seems to be. Later he’ll take Doyle to a greasy diner and even later proudly announce, “nothing burps better than bacon.” See, beyond the fancy cooking and the cigar smoking—which in ‘91 was more of a rich guy thing, right?—he is also prone to vulgarity and violence. He’s not above introducing a kid to pornography and he’s not above abandoning a kid on the side of the road in the snow. He’s also quick to offer a job to a guy in need. He’s kind when it fits the plot and rude when it fits, too. Stephen Hunter, in his Baltimore Sun review, says it well: But almost nothing is worked...

A lot of classist undertones (and sometimes overtones) in Dutch . Right away, we’re introduced to Natalie (JoBeth Williams), who’s ex husband has money and she’s a little out of place at a high class shindig. Meanwhile, her new guy, the titular Dutch (Ed O’Neill) working-class clothes and literally gets locked out of the mansion first time we see him. O’Neill here, is already a few years into Married with Children , so he is the epitome of working class American. Challenged by Natalie’s ex, what does Dutch do? Threatens him with violence. In addition to the classist stuff, there’s a lot of masculine posturing going on as well. Speaking of that ex, Reed (Christopher McDonald)—it’s amazing how by being a somewhat irresponsible asshole—not calling his son to let him know he won’t be available for Thanksgiving—he manipulates the situation so that Natalie has to break the bad news, making her the bad guy* while, minus a single phone call later in the film, Reed would be off with his new gi...

John Hughes didn’t direct Dutch , but he did write and produce it, so it’s not that surprising that this Thanksgiving road/buddy picture has a lot in common with Planes, Trains & Automobiles . There’s a rental car being pretty much destroyed. There’s an out of control fire (that results from a controlled fire). There’s robbery (and the discovery of said robbery while in a diner). There’s inadvertent intimacy. There’s animosity. There’s an emotional homecoming. And that’s just major story beats. Dutch doesn’t have the awesome characterization of Steve Martin or John Candy, but it does have Ed O’Neill. There’s a different kind of charm to Dutch than Planes, Trains & Automobiles , but the plot is basically the same. Just shuffle a few of the parts around, switch out the strangers for “father”* and son. * If you’ve not seen the film, the premise is that Ed O’Neill’s titular character is transporting his girlfriend’s son home for Thanksgiving. Kid doesn’t like him, gett...