This
evening I watched O.T.: Our Town, a
documentary about high school students in Compton putting on Wilder's classic
play at an institution where no drama event has been held in over 20
years. A few things stood
out to me about the film including the excellent characters, the unique
commentary on the human condition, and the filmmaker's ability to raise the
stakes.
The
students and teachers that are pictured in O.T.
were very dynamic and interesting. I appreciate the filmmakers avoiding
trying to classify each student into a group such as "jocks" or a "nerds". Instead a very honest and genuine
portrait was captured as the filmmakers followed individual students into their
homes and interacted with their family and friends. The insight and voice of
the students themselves made this film worth watching, and that aspect is
something no narrator could offer.
Though
near the end of the film things felt a little too didactic, I enjoyed the
general theme about the human attributes that connect our whole society. It was
really neat to see how the students learned and adapted the play to make
meaning, and was a testimony to me of the power of great literature to survive
not only time but transcend culture and other differences. The commentary and
insight into the human condition in O.T. makes
this one of my favorite documentaries I have seen to date.
The
last thing I noticed in watching this film was how the filmmakers were
constantly raising the stakes. At first I thought they were doing a great job,
but by the end (the intermission of the final performance) I felt that things
were starting to feel a little too contrived. It is a difficult skill to
balance story structure in non-fiction work, and though I don't think the
filmmakers did a terrible job, I would have appreciated less dramatic moments
that begged the question: but will they
succeed? This was a great film, and though I did feel a little manipulated by the constant raising of the stakes and the dramatic and obvious connections to the human condition I still feel the story and characters were worth watching and learning about.
Thanks for sharing, G!
ReplyDeleteGreat to see something on the old Gray report again! I must admit I'm a little lost in all the other things you're putting out there but am working my way through them a bit at a time.
ReplyDeleteThe film sounds interesting in that it avoids the stereotypes that other films make for the sake of simplicity. Usually all the people we know can't be so easily categorized, and even in high school there wasn't clear and cut lines between peoples with similar interests. Glad to see this film went the high road, even it did get a little preachy.
ReplyDeleteI like how you mentioned that you got tired of the heightened stakes in this film. Usually audiences love dramatic tension and crave those "will they succeed?" moments. But I totally understand that it gets a little tired when there are excessive amounts of those moments. Whenever I watch movies that have too much dramatic moments, I find myself getting annoyed at the movie because I really just want to find out how things turn out for the characters (and not in a good way). The overuse of dramatic moments, I feel, actually kill the tension in the movie because it leaves the audience impatient. Cool analysis!
ReplyDelete