posted
A couple weeks ago, April 2 to be exact, marked the beginning of a few weeks of protest and awareness-raising over a newly released film, "The United States of Leland." It's an "Indie" film, and is receiving only limited release. But some people in the autism community have been concerned about it for over a year.
In 2002, a mother of a kid with autism came across the script for the movie, which had been picked up by Kevin Spacey's production company.
Early descriptions of the film described it this way:
quote:This is a story of a sensitive teenager, Leland (Gosling), faced with issues of morality and hope under difficult circumstances, who is arrested and sent to juvenile hall, after he kills an autistic child out of sympathy (sort of like an emotional euthanasia).
Between the initial protest petition and April 2, a number of things happened. First, it showed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2003. Second, Matthew Ryan Hoge, the writer and director, claimed the the film had changed from the initial script and the fears of people in the autism community were unfounded and unfair.
By a fluke, I discovered that "Leland" was scheduled for a limited release in March, giving us about a week to prepare. We had a number of problems in figuring out what to do. For one thing, we didn't know for sure what the final content of the movie was. We also didn't think the boycott effort in and of itself was necessarily the best way to go.
Luckily, Chicago was one of the very few cities in which "Leland" was making its premiere. On April 2, I went to the first showing in Chicago.
The movie was horrible. It was everything we feared it would be. Ryan, the murder victim is barely seen at all. Ryan is a caricature of someone with autism/severe mental retardation. Most of what we see is in the form of flashbacks - with Leland - his killer - interacting with him affectionately. (Leland kills Ryan by stabbing him 19 times) By the end of the movie, the reason we are given for the act is that Leland sees "sadness" everywhere. And he sees it in Ryan more than anywhere else.
The way the picture is framed, the audience can believe that Leland is truly empathetic and while his actions were "inappropriate," his feelings about Ryan's sadness were probably on target.
I had time that Friday to go back to my office, spend an hour composing a flyer and making copies, and going back downtown to meet other activists to leaflet the movie.
At the second theatre downtown, Loew's had flyers in their lobby describing "Leland" - it used the same description I quoted above - the same one the filmmaker had been saying was inaccurate for over a year!
We've only managed to get leafletting going in a few cities - Chicago, Denver and St. Louis. But the good news is this film is going down in flames anyway - it's certifiably "rotten" at Rotten Tomatoes.
But most articulate outrage regarding this movie has been written by others. Anyone who is interested should check out:
quote:There are plenty of good artistic reasons to not go see Leland, and some good political ones emerge at the very end of the film. Leland says in a voice-over that he now realizes he did what he did because there was so much sadness all around. And nowhere was this sadness more apparent than in the face of autistic Ryan. He just wanted all the sadness to stop. In the final scene, a flashback, Leland hugs and consoles the flustered Ryan and tells him not to worry, that everything will be all right. This is right before he kills him.
The quote above is an excerpt from Mike Ervin's review - link is above.
For anyone who is curious, there is a forum at Paramounts Classics where people have been "discussing" the film. (Yeah, I'm there - you'll recognize the screen name, but not the posting style). The whole bloody mess is at The United States of Leland Forum
It's FRIDAY, a day I never quite get caught up on Hatrack, a day I completely ignore my other boards, and now I'm reading the Paramount board! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
And I'm sure I know that Ronin fellow from somewhere . . .
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Rivka - I don't recommend getting caught up in the Paramount board.
Ronin is a weenie.
And the "sndrake" on the paramount forum is a real nasty piece of work - manages to be snarky, combative and assaultive in nearly every post.
Who knew I had an evil twin?
PS - Dag, DC was one of the cities the movie opened in. It's already gone. Aside from the really ghastly disability theme, it's really an amateurish piecee of melodrama. Unfortunately, it's also really "moving" to the "Dawson's Creek" and "OC" demographic.
Despite a solid cast (Don Cheadle, Ryan Gosling, Kevin Spacey), Matthew Ryan Hoge’s messy, haphazard drama about a famous author’s convict son never rings true. Inconsistent and overplotted, it’s a clunky exploitation of teenage violence draped in purported empathy. (1 hr. 44 mins.; R) — LOGAN HILL AND BLIGE EBIRI
posted
SO much for not bringing your work here with you, huh sndrake?
Thanks for letting us know about this. It makes you wonder how they got the financing to make it, doesn't it? Your boycott/protest might be more effective if you direct it at the studio that filmed it. Even indies have to find financing....
Once I started getting involved here and getting to know people a little, I knew it wasn't really going to be practical to keep my work totally out of what I post here - my work involves too much of who I am.
I realized today that I have adopted a loose set of guidelines in terms of my work-related posts.
One is that I post about things after the fact - as a report, so I can discuss or debrief with whoever is interested. Or I talk about something I am going to be doing as an individual - debate with Singer, presenting at a Catholic ethics conference, etc.
What I don't do - ever - is ask people to join in on a campaign I'm working on.
The "Leland" thing is almost over. It's been steadily losing money each week. Last weekend, the theatres that ran it made an average of about 450 dollars for the whole weekend. With that kind of perfornance, it's run will end within a few short weeks.
The boycott wasn't my idea - I personally don't like them as a tactic. Except in very rare cases, not enough people take part to have a significant impact. On top of that, everyone who signs the boycott petition now feels they've done all that needs to be done.
Heh. It's never that simple.
Trouble is, some very concerned parents ran with that idea a year ago - so you just accept that's part of the strategy and and ADD to it.
As for the funding - that was Kevin Spacey. It was his production company that picked the script, provided backing and enlisted other financers for the project. Obviously, something about this impressed people - I honestly can't see what it was.
Even with all that, the film didn't do that well at Sundance last year. It's release was delayed and I thought it might get shelved. I think the main reason it got dragged out is that the star, Ryan Gosling, is a hot property right now. They probably figured his name would draw an audience. He certainly seems to have been a big factor drawing many young people to the film, judging from comments I've seen on different movie fan boards.
This has been the main project over the past couple weeks. In a couple weeks, something else will be sure to leap to the top of the pile. On top of all the ongoing projects and work, of course.
I admit to feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and pretty cranky at times over my work.
Never bored, though. Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Well, I was glad to hear about it. I hav a cousin who has autism, I belive they call his form of it Aspengers syndrom; he can function, but only in a highly structured enviroment. Needless to say I find this type of thought process disgusting.
Perhaps it was meant to portray an absurd situation, and the audience was supposed to feel disgusted... Or maybe not. It's hard to say without seeing the film, and I have no intention of doing so.
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Caught me. 
