MovieChat Forums > Older Than America (2021) Discussion > Badly flawed (spoilers)

Badly flawed (spoilers)

posted 12 years ago by kincaid-5
3 replies | jump to latest

I think the film fails because it tries to go off in too many directions at once.

The central story, I presume, is about what happened to the children and how people find healing in the recovery of their ancestral traditions. But that gets lost in the "thriller" elements about a predatory developer, a series of murders, ghostly visitations, and a corrupt priest. People talk about how terrible it was, but all we really see are a few incidents of abuse; what actually happened to the kids was awful enough without having to go way over the top with a bunch getting locked in the basement during one of those famous Minnesota earthquakes. And the healing was reduced to people saying they have to recover their traditions and then going out into the woods for a ceremony at the end.

There are too many loose ends. The geologist sees a vision of his college friend committing suicide and ... what? The BIA flunky gets murdered, it's written off as a suicide, and ... what? (Did the "good guys" just get away with murder?) It looks like the priest and Aunty Apple -- do they call her that to her face? -- are getting something on and ... what?

And if you're making a film about the abuse of psychiatry, it's not a good idea to make it a ghost story as well. The docs are vilified for diagnosing the main character as a paranoid schizophrenic and giving her electroshock -- after she's run off the road to avoid hitting a bunch of phantom children.

There's an important story to be told here, but it could have been told better with fewer subplots and more focus.

http://redkincaid.com

[–] RoboSlater 12 years ago

All good valid points.

I just have difficulty with what appears to be the undertone of anti-Catholic bashing simply because the filmmaker knew she could get away with it. Since the film takes place in the modern day, you would think the film would have had a librarian character or SOMEONE in it to support its narrative that Catholic priests and nuns would routinely bully, mentally and physically abuse and murder small Indian children who they believe got out of hand, disappear them and no one would complain. Without the expository, the film comes off as a vehicle of the worst kind of anti-religious bigotry.

[–] blacknyellowsquid 12 years ago

lol there were so many endless cliches I thought. Just a bunch of minor plot holes, like, common "come on, would someone REALLY do that?" moments throughout the entire thing. Major suspension of disbelief required, and I don't mean for the ghosts.

For example near the end...would she REALLY have gone into the abandoned building when the creepy door opens without waiting for her fiance? Just wait two seconds for crying out loud...and the priest just happens to overhear the conversation she has in the hospital about having visions...just...again. All these cheap/forced plot devices to move the story along. Just kinda had to laugh and shake my head but pretend it wasn't so obvious so I could see what would happen next. And then the housekeepr just happened to be cleaining her room one minute after her straps magically got undone by the ghost in the psych hospital (and leaves the door wide open...)...[so, also why couldn't the uncle ghost have helped unstrap the mom back in the day? If he helped rescue the daughter, why not the mom/his sister after he had died?] And then how easily Auntie Apple at the end ripped off her cross necklace. Years and years of brainwashing, letting her own sister get brain damaged from it even...and it takes two seconds for her niece to convince her it was all lies? Really?

Etc ad infinitum.

Oh and as for the question about them murdering the permit guy, and just getting away with it. Yeah they got away with it. I think the "maltreatment leading to high rate of suicide and murders among native Americans" line at the end addressed it. Just further evidence of how they were suffering as a result of years of indoctrination of abuse. Bradley Cooper's friend's suicide and the friend's dad's suicide...the murdering...thus the long suffering.

I agree with the OP, it's an important story to be told. There were just so many endless movie cliches and cheap plot devices and uber suspension of disbelief required...

[–] Tri-State_Skater 10 years ago

Blame the low budget. They did what they could.