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I was thinking about how Dr. Campbell noted that Vernon, Florida is Morris’ purest epistemological movie and I support this completely because Vernon, Florida doesn’t pretend to be about anything, unlike Gates of Heaven which at least as the premise on the very surface of being a film about pet cemeteries. This lack of any semblance of plot I think makes Vernon, Florida either the best Morris movie or the worse Morris movie depending on your perspective. Those who are enthralled by the metaphysical questions that Morris’ films pose love Vernon, Florida…and those who think that Vernon, Florida is a just a lot of old people rambling with no purpose whatsoever will hate it.
Vernon, Florida gives us a window to the basic human desire for the meaning of life. The people in the film are ordinary, blue-collar people who are searching for answers in an incomprehensible world. There are a few answers which are given. The turkey-hunter as found meaning in his life through turkey hunting. Much like Danny in Gates of Heaven, he as turned turkey hunting into an art form, and become obsessed with it. This obsession gives him meaning (even if it is an illusion, but this still doesn’t matter as long as its not an illusion to him.) Another answer is through God with the man in boat where he states that nothing happens by coincidence. The last is through experience where the farmer says the his knowledge of “wigglers” doesn’t come from a book, but from experience.
However, at some point during the movie Morris provides a counterexample for all of these answers. Religion (as well as scholasticism) is mocked during the sermon scene, particularly when all of the church-goers are shown in the foreground looking highly disinterested. The man turkey hunting is constantly being fooled by the sound all the buzzards make. And the “wiggler” farmer even admits his mistake when talking about the night-crawlers, saying that he left them there over night and they all crawled away.
I think it’s important that Vernon, Florida raises these questions and then offers answers, and then questions those answers. It would be interesting to know how much of Morris’ mentality (being beat up after trying to film Nub City) affected the nihilism present in this film?
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Nihilism? Maybe. I think skepticism is more accurate, particularly in the meaning of “looking at.” Interesting to see this skepticism combined with a passionate engagement with the quest for meaning, and with the people who are questing.
This questing becomes rather different in “The Thin Blue Line.”
Comment by gcampbel 03.22.07 @ 1:18 pmI agree nihilism may be to strong of a word, but I thought skepticism wasn’t strong enough. I actually thought about the word to put there for quite awhile.
Comment by mark 03.22.07 @ 4:03 pmLeave a comment
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