How do you feel it portrays your town?
Is it "accurate", does it reflect poorly upon you or should we view it as drama and leave it at that?
well...i dont live in centerville, but i live in iowa and there have been a few meth busts around and in my town, and its pretty devistating to the people's lives. Their families and friends are compleatly shocked. But it is true that Iowa and meth are a pair....for sure...
shareMy mother grew up in Centerville and I spent summers there at my grandparents' house when I was a kid. I grew up in Des Moines. I went to college in Iowa City and grad school in LAncaster, England. And I live in Portland, Oregon, now. The problems in this movie aren't specific to Centerville or even Iowa. I have met them everywhere I've lived. You probably have, too. At the same time, it's not even that accurate--not in its portrayal of Centerville at least. You could live eighty years in Centerville and be damn near unaware of the meth problem going on in that house three doors down. "Iowa" the movie is Mr. Fansworth's sensationalized view of his hometown. I have my own view of Centerville, which happens to differ from his. But I'm not worked up about this and I don't think many other Iowans are either. He hasn't made a film worthy of the shock he hoped to inspire.
shareI don't think this movie will be that offending to the state of Iowa (I know you were talking about Centerville) because one of the actors is from Sioux City, IA. I think it's the Stephen Whitney guy.
shareI haven't watched that much yet, but don't know if I can because it IS making me angry. I had relatives in Centerville and grew up in a town closer to Des Moines, but this is NOT what Iowa or Iowans are like at all!
Yes, meth is a problem and saying that we don't know who is doing it is kind of a crock. It stinks and stinks bad. People usually get caught, go to jail for a short time, get out and start in again.
It is a blue collar drug that farmers make to suppliment their income and laborers like factory workers take so that they can stay up all night working and then turn around and work all day on their farm or second job. They are not the typical wastrel doper that is unproductive. Both the users and manufacturers have jobs, farms or even businesses. My cousin's husband, my best friends nephew, a man I dated 30 years ago. My second cousin was murdered along with another man in a trailer where they were making it by a long time family aquanitence. These aren't just people in their teens and twenties. They can be in their 30's, 40's, 50's or even 60's. It is a devastating problem for many families, because even if they do finally get caught, go through rehab and quit, they are never the same. It changes them mentally and emotionally forever.
I grew up in Corydon in the county next to Centerville, and I'm now a film student at the University of Iowa. I absolutely hated this movie. I still can't figure out why the guy who made this movie felt it needed the title 'Iowa' because it was completely arbitrary to the subject matter. I thought that he and his collaborators were just trying to sensationalize drug use by making it sexy and violent while operating under the guise of trying to uncover its horrors. (Not to mention that the movie was terrible anyway) Every single character in this film was portrayed as stupid, and most of them had terrible southern accents. Yeah, a lot of the older men down there have strong Missouri accents, but they are nothing like what was used in the film. Most of the young people speak more neutrally than most other people in the country. This is why Iowans' voices often are used as models for broadcast journalists. As a movie in general, I gotta say this one just sucked. There was no consistent tone, there were huge plot holes, the editing was weird and bad, and I just had to laugh the whole way through at how bad it was. Yeah, you could tell the guy was trying to put together some cool shots, but they had nothing to do with the plot of the film. This guy reminds me of every other walking stereotype of a young, white, male film student who really just wants to WATCH movies all day and probably shouldn't be ACTUALLY MAKING them because he doesn't actually have a unique voice (or if he does, he doesn't know how to translate it into a unique story). Instead, he tries to do what Tarantino does... bottle up all the "cool *beep* he's ever seen in movies and spew it back out at us and hope we'll think he's awesome. There's a great line in a movie that makes fun of young filmmakers called "See this Movie." Seth Meyers is having a breakdown at the end and says something to the effect of,"I didn't actually want to make movies, I really just wanted to be famous." I'm pretty sure the makers of "Iowa" shared his sentiments exactly.
share[deleted]
I'm from Centerville. I've yet to see this movie but I remember when they were shooting it. My girlfriend waited on Rossana Arquette at her family's restaurant. I'll be there in 5 days for Christmas in fact. My dad (a farmer) has to legally lock up the pesticide tanks that he puts on his crops now. When I worked at a local grocery store we couldn't sell lithium batteries and our Suphedrine cold medicine had to be locked up, and that was in 1999. I live in Chicago now so I don't personally know "meth-heads" but when I go home to visit it's obvious who's been trying it on for size.
I grew up in Centerville (15 years). I think the movie accurately represents the prevailing attitudes and misconceptions. I left Centerville before the meth problem really set it so I can't comment very accurately on that front. When I make my annual return visit I always hear how some bright, charismatic former classmate of mine has shaved his head, grew a beard, lost some teeth and has become a total meth zombie. I'm not sure how much of this is true and how much is hype but it makes for a good scare story for visitors.
Oh, one more thing, Centerville has Pancake Day! (Look it up!)
I grew up in Centerville. I moved away when I was 16 and I'm now 18 and living just north of Cedar Rapids. I know several people from my old class that did the whole meth thing and you don't have to swing too big of stick there to hit a guy on meth. Centerville has a larger per capita police force than larger cities like Ottumwa which has a lot to do with its drug problem.
By the way, I marched in Pancake Day for 3 years in the Howar JH and then CHS marching bands.
I have lived in Centerville, Iowa my entire life, 46 years, and I watched the movie at our local theater. I didn't like it, but I don't really like that type of movie anyway. It saddened me to see Centerville portrayed in such a negative light, because there is another side to Centerville that is not reflected. There are truly fantastic people here, many more of them than the meth addicts. It is a quiet, safe, and neighborly town, where people greet each other on the street, and you can still trust most everyone in your neighborhood. I know that drug problems exist here, I will not ignore that fact, and it is such a problem that anhydrous tanks (fertilizer)now have locks on them, and fences around them.
I know this movie was not supposed to be an advertisement for tourism in southern Iowa, but it was painful to just see the bad stuff about our town. There are problems with drugs, poverty, unemployment and abuse, but there are also the people who are trying to make Centerville a great place to live, work, and grow up. The people are friendly, and you can walk down the street without worrying about getting assaulted. Centerville is a great place to live, despite it's problems.
I was born in Centerville and have lived in and around it for the first 18 years of my life and in Ottumwa for roughly three years after that. I can say, with out a doubt that while it may be painful to see this stuff about your beloved town, it is a cesspool of poverty, unemployment, small mindedness, drug abuse and idiocy. I know that there's a tradition of people living there and trying to make the best of it, but the town is on it's last legs economically. What are the vast amount of unskilled laborers going to do now that all the factories are closing? Not a gods damned thing that's what. They'll sit about drinking and taking government assistance.
shareGweddy, do you know any of the Schwerring family? That's my wife's relation. We come down several times a year to visit, and you are right. While there are those problems, Centerville is a pretty great little town.
Exterminate!
I don't live there, nor have I seen the film, but my wife has family there, and we spend a lot of time there. Here's the thing about Centerville. It's a smaller town in a very poor part of the state. There is indeed a drug problem there and in surrounding communities. Dealing can help boost an already pathetic income. I don't condone it, but I know why they do it. It's a horrible problem that is eating away at many communities here in Iowa.
Exterminate!