Don't Come Knocking (2005)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Wim Wenders

Writers (WGA):

Sam Shepard (screenplay)
Sam Shepard (story) ...

Release Date:

25 August 2005 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama | Music

Plot:

Howard Spence (Sam Shepard) has seen better days. Once a big Western movie star, he now drowns his...

Plot Keywords:

Movie Star | One Night Stand | Melodrama | Singing In Car | Butte Montana

Awards:

1 win & 7 nominations

Cast

James Roday	...	1st AD
Jeffrey Vincent Parise	...	2nd AD (as Jeff Parise)
Majandra Delfino	...	1st Girl
Marieh Delfino	...	2nd Girl
Sam Shepard	...	Howard Spence
George Kennedy	...	Director
Julia Sweeney	...	Producer 2
Tim Matheson	...	Producer 1
James Gammon	...	Old Ranch Hand
Tim Roth	...	Sutter
Robin Twogood	...	Patrolman
Gabriel Mann	...	Earl
Fairuza Balk	...	Amber
Mike Butters	...	Businessman
Sarah Polley	...	Sky

MPAA:

Rated R for language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

122 min | 113 min (theatrical version)

Country:

France | Germany | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Netherlands:AL | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | Finland:K-3 | Ireland:15A | Sweden:7 | Brazil:14 | Australia:M | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15 | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Germany:6 (f) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA

Company:

Reverse Angle Pictures (II)

Trivia:

According to the director's DVD commentary, the casinos in Elko were "too crummy" for shooting. The casino scene was shot instead in the Peppermill and Rainbow casinos at Wendover, Nevada.

Goofs:

Continuity: The blown tire on Howard's car changes sides between shots.

Quotes:

Howard Spence: Mind if I turn the radio on?
Sutter: Yes, I do, as a matter of fact. I don't like outside influence.
Howard Spence: Outside?
Sutter: That's right. The world at large. It's a nasty place. Why allow it in? Livestalk reports, Navajo chanting, beheadings, bestiality. Nothing's changed. Black Death, the Inquisition, the Crusades, conquest of Mexico. What's changed?
Howard Spence: I was thinking...
Sutter: What?
Howard Spence: I don't know.
Sutter: Nothing's changed.
Howard Spence: Guess not.

Movie Connections:

References Pinocchio (1940)

Soundtrack:

Monkey Dance

Identity

Writer/actor Sam Shepard plays Howard Spence, an aging, out of fashion and out of control Hollywood star who finally begins to come to terms with life in this well written, wonderfully acted, beautifully shot, marvelously scored, sad and poignant film.

Howard stars primarily in Westerns, and as Don't Come Knocking begins, he's on location in Southeastern Utah. Or rather, he's supposed to be on location. No one on the set can find him, and he's due for a shoot. His trailer is a mess, full of "party smoke" and mysterious, scantily clad women, but Howard is nowhere to be found. That's because he's taken a horse and ridden off into the hills near Monument Valley. We don't know exactly why he's decided to take off, and it quickly becomes apparent that neither does Howard. He takes a number of steps to make himself difficult to find, such as trading clothes with an old ranch hand (played by beloved character actor James Gammon). And those are smart moves, because shortly after, a representative from the film's completion bond company arrives to check up on him, due to his notorious irresponsible behavior, and when they discover that Howard is gone, they're after him effectively like bounty hunters tracking down a criminal.

Don't Come Knocking is maybe not recommendable to everyone. The pacing is relatively slow. The backstory and plot are told very gradually and mostly indirectly--the viewer has to infer or deduce much of it. But the pacing is appropriately melancholy, and backstory and plot are cleverly constructed so that the viewer is taken on a parallel journey with Howard--in the beginning, Howard is wandering out of his previous life aimlessly--he's not sure where he's going or why he's going there, and as he progresses, he must piece together his authentic life (in the existential sense) from unexpected, disparate clues.

Thematically, this is a film about personal and interpersonal identity, especially coming to terms with identity that has been not only deferred but effectively denied for many years. This is true for all five major characters (Howard, Doreen (Jessica Lange), Earl (Gabriel Mann), Sky (Sarah Polley) and Howard's Mother (Eva Marie Saint)). Howard has the most work to do on this end, of course, and he's the one who has taken the most blatant steps to defer and deny coming to terms with himself, while Howard's Mother maybe has the least amount of work to do, but she does still have work to do--notice, for example that she doesn't recognize Howard when she first sees him, and notice that despite the fact that Howard is a movie star who was important enough to be regularly covered by the tabloids, many characters who matter to the story do not recognize him from his film work. One minor but thematically significant character from the past who does immediately recognize Howard, an old schoolmate, Cliff Ormsby (Tom Farrell), is immediately denied and rudely dismissed by Howard, because at that point, early in the film, he's still not completely ready to come to terms with himself and his past.

On a technical level, everything about Don't Come Knocking is exceptional, including Wim Wenders' direction. I was especially fond of the locations and the fantastic cinematography, as I've long been in love with the Western United States. This is a relatively little known film that gradually snuck its way around a small number of art-house theaters for many months throughout the spring and summer of 2006. Even if you don't think it's a masterpiece, exactly, it deserves to be seen and it deserves some word of mouth publicity.