markusws Review of Dakota Road

Dakota Road (1991)

Overly somber tale of death and tragedy in a beautiful, but depressing setting

[3/10 · 7 June 2007]

The information about the movie on the TV guide read, "A farming community living near a U.S. missile base suffers the effects of environmental pollution." It is true there are a few scenes of military jets that land on a nearby base and are seen in the air. And there are some dead fish floating in a pond. But all that is a backdrop for the poor relationships and decisions that are everywhere in this move. Jen Cross is a 15 year old who is angry with the way things are and decides to use young Raif sexually as a means of escape. Her parents fight constantly, he is a poor tenant farmer, and she is the homemaker, but it is not much of a home. The mother is cross with the kids and more cross with the husband. The owner of the property is a shallow shell of a man, who fires Jen's father when he speaks up that the pesticide the owner has been using is polluting and killing the fish. The problem there is that it is probably the military base is the polluter. The owner hires the mother as a cleaning lady, which further infuriates and saddens the father. The father commits suicide in a way that his body is never found. There are other characters in the movie, Raif's mother, the cleaning staff of the Rector, is ill and dies, there is just a remote inference that the pollution caused the illness. The Rector is an ineffective, lonely man himself. The movie is completely a tragedy, and there appears little, if any, hope anywhere in the movie. Even in the end when Jen strikes out on her own, the move may be trying to present this as a hopeful act, but the mood is so somber by now that I, for one, wasn't encouraged, she appears as just another person who is running away. The setting is beautiful, there are some meager attempts that show a little compassion, a little love, but it is not enough. If you want to commiserate on misery, or just like tragic movies, you might like this. But I for one see the world where there is invariably sun and rain everywhere. There are good times and bad times, and even in mostly tragic circumstances, there are hopeful things to cling to, which this movie seems to argue against. I can't recommend it.