DADETOWN
** (No Rating)
Directed by Russ Hexter. Produced by Jim Carden. Cinematography by W.J.
Gorman. Running time: 93 minutes. No MPAA rating (nothing objectionable).
By Roger Ebert
*Warning: Secrets are revealed in this review; read at your own risk.*
A few weeks before I saw Russ Hexter's ``Dadetown,'' I received e-mail from
a friend who told me there was an ``amazing'' development during the
closing credits. Then the film opened at the Nuart theater in Los
Angeles--where, according to Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, it
played with the warning, ``No one will be allowed to leave the theater
during the last five minutes of this film.'' He agreed that it was
``essential to stay through the end credits.''
All charged up, I saw ``Dadetown'' and then, somewhat perplexed, watched
the closing credits on video a second time. Then I went to the Internet for
other input, and found a review by the excellent James Bernardinelli. He
writes: ``Whatever you do, don't leave before the final credits have
rolled. Dadetown's most startling surprise is reserved for them.''
Nothing in the closing credits had surprised me. But before I discuss them
in detail, let me describe the movie.
``Dadetown'' begins with the information that it started out as a 15-minute
PBS documentary about the small towns of America. Developments during the
shoot, however, inspired the filmmakers to stay longer, watching the town
transform itself from a smokestack to a silicon economy. The film works
through interviews with locals: town council members, workers at the Gorman
metal works, a sheriff's deputy, a store owner, and many others--including
spokesmen for API Technologies, a high-tech outfit that has relocated to
Dadetown's bucolic upstate New York landscape, with its low taxes and small
town charm.
It's hard to explain exactly what API makes, or does, or is. The initials
stand for ``American Peripheral Imaging,'' and the company is ``a facility
dealing in the transmission of scientific and commercial data.'' Say again?
The spokesman who explains is a little sheepish, as well he might be, since
he is fluent only in Corporate PR-Speak. (The school board in Oakland
should have included publicity double-talk among the languages our students
should speak; ebonics would be joined by euphemistics.)
Dadetown's major employer, pre-API, was the Gorman plant, which during
World War II had won glory by turning out aircraft parts for Grumman. It
has since come down a notch or two, and produces ``small metal products,''
which is euphemistic-speak for paper clips and staples.
The filmmakers visit with Gorman workers, who talk with pride about their
town and their jobs. And they visit API newcomers, who are moving into new
luxury homes and wishing the town had boutiques and maybe a movie theater.
Then calamity strikes: Gorman lays off 150 workers, in preparation for
shutting down. The economics are clear. For the cost of 10 tons of paper
clips in Dadetown, 120 tons can be made in Asia.
The town is in an uproar. Local elections are affected. A beloved, recently
deceased councilman might have agreed to a shady settlement. The Gorman
workers are out of jobs. There's a building boom for nice new API homes,
but dozens of Gorman workers' homes flood the market. And then we arrive at
the famous end titles.
What do they reveal that is so stunning? Read no further unless you want to
know . . . that the documentary is a fake. ``Dadetown'' is a fiction film
masquerading as a documentary. It had a script and actors.
I was underwhelmed. I didn't know the secret when I saw the film, but it
was clear to me from the film's opening moments that it was fiction--not
only because of obvious clues, but because any sophisticated viewer can
just plain *tell* by listening closely to the tones and nuances of the
dialogue.
The most perplexing and fascinating documentary I have ever seen is Errol
Morris' ``Gates of Heaven,'' about pet cemeteries in California. Its
dialogue and developments are so remarkable that many feel it must be
fiction. But, no, you can sense instinctively that the people on screen are
actually talking spontaneously to the camera, and not delivering prepared
dialogue, however wonderfully worded. (I checked; the people were real.)
By the same token, I could sense that the actors in ``Dadetown'' were
actors. They are good actors, for the most part, but I believe that no
actor is good enough to deliver fictional dialogue as if it is real and get
away with it for very long. (Some of John Cassavetes' movies come close.)
Yet all the reviews I've mentioned preserved the ``secret'' that the movie
was a fake, as if audiences would be astonished by the end credits. As I
was watching it, I recalled Barbara Kopple's ``American Dream'' (1992)
about the tragic Hormel strike in Austin, Minn. No one who has seen
Kopple's documentary footage of displaced workers could mistake similar
scenes in ``Dadetown'' for the real thing.
Apart from my disenchantment with the end titles, I had questions about the
film itself. As a fan of Michael Moore's ``Roger & Me'' (1989), I am of
course sympathetic to the fates of workers in downsized industries and the
sins of runaway manufacturers. But these are not real workers or companies,
and so any judgment about ``Dadetown'' must be based on the information in
the film.
Watching it, it occurred to me that making paper clips and staples was not
the sort of a job that many people would choose for a lifetime, if they had
alternatives. The film mentions that money is ``pouring into Dadetown'' as
a result of API's expansion, and that there is a building boom.
Construction pays better than paper clip assembly lines, and ambitious
workers would probably choose to quit Gorman voluntarily to take advantage.
Those new yuppies also mean a boom for service industries, and for
well-paid plumbers, electricians and carpenters.
I also doubt it was a tragedy that Dadetown got a boutique (I hope they get
a movie theater). The movie's locals basically seem to be saying that they
liked the town exactly the way it was, and resent all outsiders. That's a
touching combination of Norman Rockwell and xenophobia, but modern
Americans are forever on the move--``Dadetown's'' pastoral continuity is a
sentimental fiction.
Many moments ring false; at one point, the API newcomers make a wish list
that includes ``24-hour restaurants like Burger King.'' No town with an
economy based on a paper clip plant would lack fast food; the filmmakers
have confused Dadetown with an affluent suburb with snooty zoning laws. (It
would have made more sense to have the API folks trying to close down
McDonald's.)
``Dadetown'' poses as a brave statement in favor of small towns and against
what one reviewer called the fascist onslaught of high tech. I see it more
as Know-Nothingism and nostalgic sentimentality. Hexter deserves praise for
so cleverly making a fake documentary. But somehow I was reminded of a toy
cathedral glued together out of matchsticks: Why go to all that trouble
just to prove a point, when the real thing is so much more compelling?
Here's my best advice: If ``Dadetown'' sounds interesting, program a double
feature of ``Roger & Me'' and ``Gates of Heaven'' and really be amazed.
Then, for a view of an American town devastated by downsizing and
union-busting, view Barbara Kopple's ``American Dream.'' All the workers in
that film are real.
Note: Russ Hexter, the young director of ``Dadetown,'' died unexpectedly
not long after the film was finished. He showed great promise here, not
least in the imagination to even try such a project.
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