Promised Land
(USA, 107 min.)
Dir. Gus Van Sant, Writ. John Krasinski & Matt Damon,
story by Dave Eggers
Starring: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, John Krasinski,
Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook.
What is the price of oil? You might recall the question
appearing as the ad line for another Matt Damon movie, Syriana, 2005’s
provocative look at the global ripple effects of the oil industry. Damon’s
character in Promised Land, Steve
Butler, a salesman for the corporation of Global Gas, asks the audience what
cost they’re willing to pay to escape their reliance on oil. “If you’re not for
this, then you are for oil,” Steve says while trying to convince the townsfolk
of McKinley, Pennsylvania, that natural gas is smart viable solution. The
question is one of several bold queries raised in Promised Land, the new film by Damon’s Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant.
Steve is in the town with his business partner Sue (played
with sassy flair by Frances McDormand) and they’re on a mission to convince as
many landowners as they can to lease their land to Global Gas. By offering
their land for drilling, Global Gas can mine the natural riches of the town and,
in turn, yield a geyser of riches, jobs, and tax dollars to the decaying town.
It’s a bit like the trickle-down effect, except that the gas company lets the
needy townsfolk turn on the tap so that it can loot-and-plunder the land.
Several of the simple townspeople are easily convinced by
Steve and Sue’s suave pitch and modest proposal. What cash-strapped farmer
would refuse a cash advance and healthy residuals in return for a little drilling?
Alternatively, Promised Land pitches
natural gas as an intelligent alternative to foreign oil: keep the mining on
American soil and the money stays in the local economy; likewise, the country
benefits from profits that stay in America and from cleaner consumption. Steve
articulates that natural gas is smart solution that can save a fledgling nation
that has driven itself into a corner with an ideology that runs on the myth of
cheap oil for all.
On the other hand, is natural gas the best fuel to save
America? Steve and Sue’s presence in the town is cramped by the appearance of
an outspoken science teacher (Hal Holbrook) who lists the harmful side effects
of drilling for natural gas. (Viewers of Promised
Land might want to see the NFB doc Wiebo’s
War to observe the effects that mining gas can bring.) He proposes that the
citizens weigh the benefits offered by Global and put the gas company’s
proposals to a vote. Soon thereafter, a muckraking environmentalist, named Tom
Noble (named either as a nod to the nobility of green-thinking or as a hat-tip
to the noble gases), played by John Krasinski, arrives in town and protests to
the people of McKinley that he is a small-town farmer whose land was decimated
by the harmful effects of Global’s drilling tactics.
Tom, unfortunately, comes off as an arrogant d-bag, even to
a liberal with environmental concerns such as me. Promised Land therefore offers a debate with ambiguous politics:
should viewers side with the ever-likable Matt Damon as he sells the riches of
corporate goodies, or should they align themselves with the film’s antagonist,
a ball-cap wearing showboat and obnoxious goon? On one hand, Promised Land forces viewers to consider
the pros and cons of alternative energy by pitting the protagonist as the
voice-box for the oft-vilified gas company. On the other hand, the unlikable
Tom implores the audience to dispute counterarguments for natural gas. Does an
alternative to oil amount to a hill of beans when the environmental damage
simply occurs while extracting the resource, rather than while consuming it?
Promised Land
unfortunately mars its intriguing debate. Instead of leaving the query open for
audiences to cast the deciding vote, the film opts for an unforgivably
convoluted (and heavy-handed) plot twist that ultimately elides big questions
and points the finger at corporate greed. The film is well-intentioned, as it
emphasizes a need for more awareness. It also has admirable convictions, since
its credits note that the filmmakers “used sustainability strategies to reduce
its carbon emissions and environmental impact.”
Even if the film muddles the political message, Promised Land is a consistently
compelling character study thanks to Damon’s charismatic performance and to the
believable character arc that Steve undergoes. Also worth noting is a nice turn
by the ever-reliable Rosemarie DeWitt as Steve’s love interest Alice the
schoolteacher, whose charming passion for preserving the land and her heritage
helps bring about Steve’s reversal of fortune. Perhaps Steve’s arc is Promised Land’s real message. It doesn’t
really matter whether natural gas is less evil than foreign oil, or if
corporate business equals more profits for all. The promise for change
ultimately resides in individual choices or actions. One can advocate for a
cause, as Steve and Tom do; one can see energy simply as a job or transaction,
as Sue does; or one can even follow Alice’s lesson of cultivating the earth for
oneself. Promised Land doesn’t leave
too much room for alternatives, but it shows that some necessary choices need
to be made in order to preserve our land and livelihoods.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Promised Land is currently playing in Ottawa at Empire Kanata,
Empire 7, and Silvercity Gloucester.
