tieman64
Wim Wenders collaborated with Sam Shepard two decades ago on "Paris, Texas". That film starred Harry Dean Stanton as Travis, an elderly man who travels from Texas to Los Angeles in the hopes of reconciling with both his estranged son and ex-wife. After failing to atone for his obsessively jealous, violent past, Travis disappears into the desert from which he came."Don't Come Knocking" tells virtually the same tale. Also written by Shepard, it finds Shepard playing an ageing actor who abandons the set of his latest western in order to visit his mother in the small town of Butte, Montana. Once there he attempts to reconcile with his two illegitimate children, and the waitress who gave birth to one. Again bookended by the desert, the film charts a very broad metaphorical journey out of a forlorn Old West - with its preponderance for sex, violent masculinity and philandery - and into the town of Butte. Butte's portrayed as a place in which time stands still, its inhabitants living in the wreckage of Shepard's last visit.The film's different from "Paris, Texas" in minor ways. Shepard's naive and seemingly less guilt-stricken than Travis was in "Texas". Meanwhile, the family he's left behind seem to be coping perfectly fine without him. They're stronger, less vulnerable and far less bitter than their counterparts in "Texas". Indeed, they all eventually forgive and pity Shepard. And while Travis seemed consigned to a life of loneliness, and even death, Shepard's given a quasi heroic ending, waving a cowboy's hat and riding a horse off into the sunset while a film crew looks on. Caccooned in the past, he's less immediately threatening than Travis.These differences are minor, though. For the most part, "Don't Come Knocking" is wholly inferior to "Paris, Texas". Wenders and Shepard admit to making up their script as they went along, don't seem to have any definitive goal in mind, and their film features 2 or 3 silly moments, all of which involve Shepard's son throwing incredulous tantrums. Elsewhere the film trades in clichés, though actresses Sarah Polley and Jessica Lange manage to do special work with their characters. Lange in particular plays her part somewhat unconventionally, her character masking pain with private humour.Despite its problems, "Don't Come Knocking" looks amazing. Virtually every scene is shot with an interesting eye, Wenders lending the film a wonderful sense of mood, space, colour and landscape. The visuals are so strong you almost don't care about the story, which is the case with most of Wenders' best films. Why is this? One must remember that Wenders often travels the world with a Polaroid camera, taking photos of interesting locales, architecture, buildings and landscapes. He then compile these photos into private albums. Often his films then become "excuses" for "filming" these albums. "Don't Come Knocking", for example, was largely made as an excuse to shoot the town of Butte, which Wenders had visited and photographed over a decade earlier. The town strongly reminded him of Edward Hopper, a number of whose paintings Wenders emulates here."Don't Come Knocking" is also heavily influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni, Nicholas Ray and Yasujiro Ozu. Many of these artists Wenders has himself collaborated with. Wenders' 1980 documentary, "Lightning on the Water", for example, was about Ray's last days, 1985's "Tokyo Ga" was a documentary on Ozu, and he collaborated with Antonioni on 1995's "Beyond the Clouds". Significantly, all these artists, as well as Hopper, are typically termed "existential artists" (though the term has perhaps lost all useful meaning). Wenders also labels himself an "existential director", and is generally preoccupied with alienation and questions of self-identity. Occasionally his Christian beliefs influence his films as well.Perhaps no other director has made as many "road movies" as Wenders. He'd even name his production company "Road Movies", and almost always uses the genre as a kind of metaphor for journeys of self discovery or escape. But the way in which Wenders merges European modernism with America genre filmmaking (he's in love with Americana, American culture, music, iconography etc) has rightfully led to much criticism. His is a kind of romanticised alienation, a designer existentialism, overly preoccupied with outer decor and style. You see that with "Don't Come Knocking", its characters and plot an afterthought, whilst its buildings and vistas, shot lovingly in widescreen, like moving odes to Hopper, are the raison d'etre.8/10 – Eye-popping visuals and palatable mood make up for trite script. See Wenders' "Land of Plenty". Worth one viewing.
buiger
Steve Rhodes summed it up perfectly in his review: "Beautifully shot but a colossal bore..."Wim Wenders has lost it! He seems to be the only one left (along with a couple more Europeans) who still believes that all that he does is art. I heard a couple of interviews he made for German TV about the movie and his opinion of the US and it's policies recently. Instead of traveling around the world denigrating a country in which he lives and which has given him everything, he should concentrate on his film-making instead, and then maybe this would have been a better film. Why don't artists ever stick to what they know best and leave politics to responsible people?Anyway, coming back to the movie, there isn't really much to say; I will have to cite Steve Rhodes' review again: "The only thing good about 'Don't come knocking' is that Franz Lustig's cinematography will knock your socks off...", but that alone is nowhere near enough for a movie to even be watchable, let alone good.
rperry-6
Don't Come Knocking (2005) US This beautiful indi ensemble piece was directed by Wim Wenders and written by and starred Sam Shepard. The film co-stars Gabriel Mann, Jessica Lange, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint, Tim Roth, and the always hot: Ms. Sarah Polley (who earned a Star Award at the AFI - Dallas this week).Sam Shepard is a once-great washed-up movie star with nothing to loose. During the shooting of his latest pic, he up and walks off the set. Tim Roth is dispatched by the bond company to retrieve the picture's star.Shepard (howard) returns to the family home to see his mother(Eva Marie Saint), for the 1st time in 30years. After a happy reunion, he learns, or is reminded of the fact that he has a long-lost son, fathered in a one night stand with a small town girl in Montana. Howard sets off to find his son, played by Gabriel Mann.He meets up with the woman he had the one night with, played exquisitely by Jessica Lange and she introduces him to his son (Mann). Needless to say, Howard's son wants nothing to do with him. At the same time a young lady(Polley) arrives in town, to claim the ashes of her dead mother. We, as the astute audience member, piece together that Polley is Shepard's estranged daughter, whom he has never met.Eventually, Howard comes around and so does his son.Don't Come Knocking is rated R, only for language, as there is no violence or anything "bad". This film is smart, funny,cute, and as with all Wenders' film, doesn't try to be to pretentious. It was however emotional and did strike a chord with me, in that the fact that Howard had estranged children with whom he had to reconcile with. This particular film hit me sort of personally and at the end i reluctantly found myself with "something in my eye"....must have been dust; yeah, that was it.I definitely recommend it and will be shortly skimming Amazon dot com for a copy to call my own. Although, i'm not sure if i can stand to watch it again.....
