Don’t Come Knocking

© A.J. Malouin 2008

(Rating: 2 by Al and 15 by Caryl.)
(See our side-bar page “How Caryl & Al & The Film Snob Rate Movies”)

(2005/France/Germany/USA. Directed by Wim Wenders.)
What happens when America’s Western Cowboy Hero — having Cleaned Up The Situation and Won The Girl — “forgoes some deep advantage”[1] and rides off into the sunset?

Wellllll, the sun quickly sets and it gets pretty totally dark.

For cowboy-movie hero Howard Spence (played here by Sam Shepard) that darkness includes alcohol, other drugs, and wanton women— some of them apparently twins.

Now in the twilight of his cowboy movie career, Spence one day rides backwards out of the darkness, to see what came of himself, and, especially, of those he left behind.

That journey starts when Spence finds out that he fathered a child, years ago. He rides out of a haze of alcohol and failed one-night stands to find out who that child could be. In that journey, Spence gets to ride down the road not taken and discover another way in which his life could have turned out.

This is a film *packed* with stunning performances, including those by Fairuza Balk, George Kennedy, Sarah Polley, Tim Roth and Eva Marie Saint.

The best actor in a whole shebang full of great acting is Jessica Lange, who will totally blow you away with her performance.

The best film out there when it was out there, this film was only out there, where Caryl & Al live, for a week.

“Don’t Come Knocking” is a Superb Film which Al thinks you ought to rent tonight!!! Caryl thinks Al is MUCH toooo kind in his praise. (2 hrs 4. Rated R for language and brief nudity.)
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1. John Berryman, “77 Dream Songs,” in describing what (American) Western cowboy movie star William S. Hart always did at the end of each cowboy movie Berryman saw as a kid.