There is something really interesting about almost hitting your thirties. It’s beyond the transition from child to weird young adult person to full fledged member of society. You really do have time to see how you’ve changed, how you’ve stayed the same, and how you have become an individual as the influence of the family unit really starts to diminish. It’s a moment where now you can see how you relate to the people who came before and those coming after.
Generational clashes are nothing new. Obviously the biggest one we’ve ever had was probably in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam. But I think it’s natural that every generation has some feelings about the others. Its an idea that was heavily explored in two movies that I really love and I wanted to take some time to talk about how they are similar and why this thematic thread has always been one I love to pull on.
As a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson it was truly delightful to see the way One Battle After Another plowed through awards season. It culminated in the film receiving among others, Best Picture, Screenplay and Director at the Academy Awards. What I particularly liked about the movie beyond the Leo performance was the idea that Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) was a living breathing metaphor that represents in the text of the movie, the failure of the French 75, and in the subtext the failure of past generations to remove prejudice from power. Not without of lack of trying of course but the movie does a good job of expressing the idea that whatever issues you don’t solve they’ll certainly be there to impact your children.
The child in this case Willa (Chase Infiniti) doesn’t seem to know too much about her parent’s past. In fact she doesn’t know her mother at all. Her perception of her is one that was told to her by Bob (Leo) but isn’t totally accurate. What she learns later in the movie is that the danger she is in is happening partly because of the actions of her mother who not only turned in the French 75 members in exchange to be put into witness protection but she then fled while under government watch. So naturally as the plot unfolds the past and present are on a collision course and simply cannot be avoided.
I think the sentiment is similar as it pertains to the relationship between parents and children in the Sidney Lumet film Running on Empty. In the vast array of movies that makeup the Lumet filmography it’s hard to call this one among his best. But it is among my favorites. It’s a similar story that follows the Pope family. Parents Annie (Christine Lahti) and Arthur (Judd Hirsch) were in deep in the counter culture movement of their time. In an attempt to slow down the war in Vietnam they destroyed a weapons lab and have been on the ever since. Fast forward to the present day of the film and they have two sons, the older Danny (River Phoenix) is struggling to find the footing to make a life of his own as he preps for college because of the constant moving the family does to elude the FBI.
The movie really kicks into gear when Lorna (Martha Plimpton) enters the picture. She kicks it off with Danny and a romance follows. Despite these feelings for one another Danny’s parents maintain the Heat like stance that you can’t have anything in your life you aren’t willing to walk away from in 30 seconds. But there is a pivotal moment in the movie and one that is one of my favorite scenes of any movie I’ve ever watched that shows how a parent will always end up being more than the desires of a parent. Lorna is invited over to the Pope family house much to the dismay of Danny’s farther. But it becomes clear very quickly that not only does she fit in with Danny BUT that she also fits in with the family at large. The walls slowly come down and by the time the dinner with the family is over she is quickly one of their own. It’s a good moment because you get a sense of what these people truly are underneath all of the paranoia that surrounds them when we met them in the movie. It’s like a time capsule of a moment for the parents and a glimpse into a potential future for Danny.
That leads into the actual moment I’m talking about that really could be split into two. But the main one comes after that dinner when Arthur goes to his record player and drops the needle on James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” which is an important song for me when one considers the relationship Taylor had with Carole King and the work they did on her album Tapestry which is one of my all time favorites. But I digress, the point is that when he plays the song a very beautiful moment happens where Arhtur begins to dance with Lorna, and Danny with his mother. In a oner they move from the kitchen to the dining room where Danny finds Lorna and now they begin to slow dance together.
They are very awkward together since one can assume this is the first slow dance they’ve ever had together. Danny’s hat gets knocked off his head, they step on each other’s feet. Meanwhile Danny’s parents are dancing perfectly with one another, looking deep into each other’s eyes. The life experience and the experience within their relationship is very clear. They are two people who know beyond a reasonable doubt who they are and what they represent. While the children just to their right dancing to the same song aren’t quite sure where they need to put their hands or their feet. They have an idea of how they want the dance to go but don’t have lived experience yet to execute it flawlessly.
To me in the frame in that moment where the camera sits Lumet is essentially telling us here you guys go this is the movie. He still follows through on the rest of it and delivers a very strong ending but the thematic intent of the movie feels fully captured in that one moment. One that admittedly makes me emotional every time that I see it. Of course because of the generational elements we’ve been talking about but also when you see River Phoenix in this role it’s tough to watch. It’s a movie about a kid with limitless potential trying to find his way and it was the perfect role for him at that moment. So it’s hard to not think of the life that was lost and what could’ve been when you see it.
The ending of these movies follow through on these ideas but there is a subtle difference between when. In One Battle, Willa finally gets the opportunity to read a letter from her mother. In it Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) seems to express a lot of regret in how she handled herself within the movement once it became clear that she would be a mother. There is a lot a real melancholic vibe to the idea of their revolution. It feels like despite all they did they ultimately failed.A similar sentiment is felt in Running on Empty. With the movie ending with Danny’s parents not letting him in the family truck as they move away. Instead his father tells him to get on his bike and that he’s on his own. His father says, “Now go out there and make a difference, your mother and I tried. And don’t let anyone tell you any different”
I think there is beauty in the sort of ouchie feeling that after a certain point in American history we begin to see these stories of what we pass onto the next and we never do enough for them. It’s a pretty complex idea for a movie but one that when executed well can transcend any one moment and capture the feeling of a people in country who are in fact dealing with one battle after another, and might be running on empty.
Next week grab your sword and grab sandales because folks….we’re going home.
The Ambassador Almanac 