"That's a nice-a donut."
Saturday, July 02, 2005
The Milagro Beanfield War
In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows local governments to seize private homes and businesses for economic development (i.e., "eminent domain"), in addition to the fights in many suburban towns to keep large businesses (read: WalMart) out, The Milagro Beanfield War seems quite relevant today. The picturesque movie is a lighthearted tale about quiet, poor little town in New Mexico that is threatened by zealous land developers bent on building a resort and country club in town. Most of the working class town would have to eventually move as the club, and all that comes with it, would likely increase property taxes beyond their means. The townspeople, who can never seem to agree on anything, are wildly split over what to do about this issue. But nearly everything seems to be in place for the resort to be built, except for stubborn peasant Joe (Chick Vennera) who owns and farms a beanfield. The developers clearly have law enforcement in their back pockets and a hell bent state police cowboy is dispatched to solve the problem, which only leads to further skirmishes in this pending war.
Some of the familiar faces in the fairly large cast include Christopher Walken as the ruthless state trooper, John Heard as a local newspaper publisher and lawyer, Daniel Stern as a sociologist, Melanie Griffith as a hussy, M. Emmett Walsh as the governor, and James Gammon (of course best known as Tire World employee Lou Brown in Major League).
This Robert Redford directed movie feels like a John Sayles picture in many ways; it is a story about a quirky group of people in a small town, there are a couple overlapping subplots, which makes use of the large cast. The problem is that unlike most Sayles movies, the characters and plots aren't developed fully enough. In particular, the land developers and their posse in the beanfield war are rather one-dimensional and the large cast is wasted in that regard. The movie also has elements of many harmless British comedies - I am especially reminded of The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill, But Came Down a Mountain with Hugh Grant. The problem with that, though, is that Beanfield is not strictly a comedy and its characters are generally not as jolly or carefree.
There are a number of good things about The Milagro Beanfield War nonetheless. A local pig is used for good comic effect, providing for a few hilarious moments, and is even important to the plot at one point. And an interesting concept in the film is the strange mysticism in the air in, especially around a crazy old man, perhaps suggesting that Milagro has a destiny that is bound to be fulfilled. The lead actors are fairly convincing, especially Chick Vennera as farmer Joe. Also, the off-beat musical score is very effective at helping to develop the light atmosphere in Milagro, in fact it won the Academy Award for best original score of 1988.
It should be noted that almost inexplicably the movie received a restricted ("R") rating from the MPAA. It is unquestionably one of the tamed R-rated films ever, with perhaps 3 f-words and some very mild violence, it is certainly not something that I would hesitate to show to older children. This is generally an enjoyable movie, with an interesting story; I just wish that the filmmaker's had scaled back the number of characters a little in order to focus more on those that mattered.
The Verdict: C+.
Michael Bentley 11:23 AM
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