{"id":24951,"date":"2019-06-30T12:00:27","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T17:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=24951"},"modified":"2019-06-30T10:28:03","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T15:28:03","slug":"countdown-to-halloween-the-american-un-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/06\/30\/countdown-to-halloween-the-american-un-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Countdown to Halloween: The American Un-Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I promised at the end of the last post that we\u2019d again veer away from \u201chorror\u201d and instead talk about a documentary, the subject being that of a forgotten horror film director. We will, though the reason for his absence in the annals of horror history has more to do with the fact that he\u2019s never made a major motion picture than that time forgot him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He literally was and still is a struggling filmmaker, despite making appearances on \u201cFamily Guy,\u201d having a part in the sequel to \u201cCabin Fever\u201d and appearing as a guest on \u201cThe Late Show with David Letterman\u201d a total of five times. Yet, despite years and years of trying, he is still very much just a guy in Wisconsin with a dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d like to talk a bit about filmmaker Mark Borchardt<\/a> and the movie that chronicles him as he attempts to make a film. I\u2019d like to talk about \u201cAmerican Movie<\/a>\u201d\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A movie that, upon first viewing several years ago, I found to be one of the funniest documentaries I’d ever seen up to that point–and possibly, now that I think about it, ever. But, upon reflection, I think missed the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The promotional poster for “American Movie.” (Source: Posteritati.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmerican Movie\u201d is about a group of struggling filmmakers in Wisconsin in the late ’90s, but mostly about writer\/director Mark Borchardt and his friend and musician Mike Schank<\/a> and their families as Mark attempts to make a feature film that is still undone, and his short film \u201cCoven,\u201d which is a horror film about witches.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that he pronounces the word \u201ccoven\u201d incorrectly throughout the movie because the actual pronunciation, \u201csounds too much like oven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though, despite that, it is an immensely heavier tale than what I first took from it. It\u2019s a deep, dark, sad tale about the down luck side of America and the sad loneliness of the dreamers that inhabit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, it is brilliantly funny. But that is because Mark can talk at great lengths and often does, sometimes in surprisingly nonsensical and amazing ways. Such as this little doozy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 “Last night, man, I was so drunk, I was calling Morocco, man. Calling, trying to get to the Hotel Hilton at Tangiers in Casablanca, man. That’s, I mean, that’s, that’s pathetic, man! Is that what you wanna do with your life? Suck down peppermint schnapps and try to call Morocco at two in the morning? That’s senseless! But that’s what happens, man.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every time I hear that come out of his mouth I burst into laughter, as one is wont to do. I mean, it’s brilliant, it’s hilarious, it’s Mark Borchardt, mad genius that he is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mark Borchardt (left) and Mike Schank. (YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mark\u2019s machine-gun mouth is much at odds with his friend, Mark Shank, who resides on the opposite side of the talkative spectrum. Words seem to spill from his mouth as if he had to build them bit by bit before uttering them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is unless he’s screaming. (Do yourself a favor and Youtube “Mike Schank scream<\/a>,\u201d you’ll be very pleased.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the surface these two genuinely funny, genuinely goofy individuals and their brilliantly mid-western families supply a great deal of hilarity, of which I could talk about for hours and hours, listing several points in the film that engulf me in laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s these things that I took from the film upon first viewing. But as I said earlier, I had missed the point. Severely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The point wasn’t to look at how ridiculous these people were, and for them to exist simply as enjoyment and for me to look and point at them and laugh at all of the ridiculous things they do. No, no, no. The movie has more depth than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon first viewing, I realized that he was mostly a lost cause, as were many of his friends. I mean, the guy, although knowledgeable, was still WAY out of his depth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark Borchardt is what some might call a “white-trash Midwestern,\u201d who was most likely destined like so many other rust-belters, to work the rest of his life in some endlessly mundane factory job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Borchardt, filmed sporting a mullet during the last gasps of the nineties. (YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

 Which is something, in this, that he often rebukes, including a drunken explosion during the Packers-Patriots 1997 Super Bowl, revealing in a drunken state, the anger and slight egotism that has lead him down his path; a path that includes a lot of drinking, a lot of depression and a lot of bitterness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon later viewing though, it was much harder to watch. Myself now being many years older, and admittedly, spending most of my twenties making films, most of which I’m not all that proud of, and realizing just how close I was to this guy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not just me. Any creative type, or dreamer who throws said dreams to the rocky shores of life, hoping, praying, inexhaustibly that your plans will work out. Though finding that most of the time, in time, we just end up embarrassed and disillusioned by our attempts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie begins with Mark narrating a drive through what I assume to be Milwaukee at night, in a dilapidated car. The purple-black sky of twilight in the background, as Mark muses:
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I was a failure. I was a failure and I get very sad and depressed about it. And I can’t be that no more. Cause I really feel like I betrayed myself, big time. Cause I think, I know, when I was growing up I had all the potential in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow I’m back to being Mark, who has a beer in his hand, and is thinking about the ‘great American script’ and the ‘great American movie’. And this time I can not fail, I won’t fail, it’s not in me. You don’t get second chances and mess em up, you’d be a fool to. Not just finishing films or in the long run getting some money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut it’s right now. I feel like, like I said, it’s five, ten, fifteen years ago now. I’ve got the same options again and this time I’m not gonna fail. This time it’s most important, not to fail, just to drink and dream but rather to create and complete.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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