Wisconsin Death Trip DVD review
Based on Michael Lesy's 1973 book of the same name, James Marsh's Wisconsin Death Trip feeds off of that innate curiosity many of us have with odd facts, people, and crimes. Both book and film are concerned with the town of Black River Falls and the strange events that occurred there in the late 1890s. Lesy collected vintage newspaper clippings and photographs to compose a portait of this turn of the century town. Marsh in turn took select items from the book and recreated them for his film to make, in his words, a visual essay.
Opening with beautiful, gliding black and white footage of a lake and the surrounding cliff faces, the film immediately establishes one of its strongest traits: a feel for landscape and the beauty inherent in it. Filmed over the course of the four season, Marsh's film also manages to convey a sense of concentrated time, aided by the relatively brief running time.
Despite the fact that the events took place 100 years ago, the vignettes Marsh has filmed have a timeless quality to them in ways both sad (a lovesick young woman drowns herself) and disturbing (a 13-year-old boy steals a gun and kills a man just for the hell of it). Still, the director resists the urge to preach or draw any overt parallels to the present; he lets the stories speak for themselves.
Even with the parade of jealous lovers, arson, mistaken burial, and dead children, Wisconsin Death Trip is not without humor, from the opera singer whose dentures rattle when she sings, to the antics of serial window smasher Mary Sweeney.
Home Vision Entertainment presents Wisconsin Death Trip in an anmorphically enhanced 1.78 transfer that beautifully shows off Eigil Bryld's cinematography. His work wonderfully captures the texture of the vintage photographs that inspired the film. Sound is crisp and clear; the excellent soundtrack Marsh has assembled (from Debussy and Blind Mellon Jefferson to DJ Shadow and new music from John Cale) provides the perfect aural accompanyment to Bryld's visuals.
Marsh and Bryld contribute a very interseting audio commentary touching on everything from the photographic techniques of the period to which season provided the worst working conditions. (Summer.) The behind the scenes documentary complements the audio commentary nicely; it is obvious that everyone who worked on the film, from Marsh's British crew to the Wisconsin locals had a great deal of faith in both their director and the project.
Already the benificiary of great word of mouth on the festival circuit, Wisconsin Death Trip is bound to continue that success on home video where it can no doubt reach a wider audience. It's a unique little film that will have many viewers saying to their friends, "You know I saw the oddest movie last night. There was this woman that kept breaking windows....and a horse with Rapunzel-like hair....and this crazy opera singer....and it was all true."
Posted by jason at March 9, 2004 9:12 AM
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