Manderlay Movie Review:


Sensitive viewers whose blood boiled at the anti-American sentiments in “Dogville” better steer far far away from “Manderlay.” Danish director Lars von Trier is at it again, continuing his "America" trilogy with this second installment of Brechtian cinema. Once again, the implementation of oh-so-lofty ideals is attacked -- where the first movie more broadly targeted the facileness of the advertised notion of a "land of opportunity," “Manderlay” focuses on slavery, its legacy, and how the wound doesn't heal with abolition.

This time the heroine Grace is played by Bryce Dallas Howard, taking over for Nicole Kidman. She arrives at a plantation named Manderlay, where it seems slavery has survived 70 years after its national abolishment. Under her sense of moral justice, Grace liberates the slaves, but her father (Willem Dafoe) warns they may be ill-equipped to deal with freedom in the world outside. Grace then decides to stay and oversee their development as an independent enterprising community for at least a year.

Naturally, things don't go so smoothly. Von Trier intends to show how a far-reaching unjust policy isn't so easily wiped away with good intentions and an attempt to institute new, supposedly liberating ideals. Grace meets resistance where she least expects it; she takes pride in her progressive ideas, only to have them backfire; and she fails to properly account for the natural human weaknesses and conflicts which inevitably produce discomforting consequences that will challenge adherence to high ideals.

The illustration is a criticism of the core principle of the U.S. foundation, i.e., freedom as the impetus for social and governmental policy; it gains relevance through its robustness. The scenario lends itself to several interpretations, such as a commentary on a U.S. foreign policy that sees democracy as the standard all other nations would welcome. Regarding race relations in this country, “Manderlay” posits how the U.S. brought over an inescapable, socially repercussive shift when slavery was introduced; more to the point, it emphasizes the degree of this shift. Its aftereffects touch so many people in so many different ways that it's practically childish to believe we've made considerable progress as a harmonious society in the 140 years since freedom was granted.

A pessimistic suggestion, yes, and that's but one interpolated discussion from this film’s concise main point. It's an attack on the U.S. tendency to simplify situations and solutions, valuing shortsighted immediacy over patience, using "democracy" and "freedom" as blanket cure-alls while ignoring the complexities of outsider cultures. These concerns aren't unfamiliar, but what makes Von Trier so inciting is how his attacks are so deliberate, and from an outsider's point of view. This is a man who lives outside our house loudly criticizing how our family is living. But whether we like it or not, Von Trier's arguments have a universal social insight that would be detrimental to ignore. There's always value in seeing something from another's perspective, and that's what these movies allow for.

Von Trier uses the spare form of the movie to make sure the arguments are paid attention to -- the constant reminder of artifice and the didactic narration and flow of the story is meant to keep the viewer thinking. It's a conscious style with the air of a lecture, as stripped down as possible; but it may be a minor weakness of “Manderlay” that it has “Dogville” to compare itself to. “Dogville” had more confidently-written scenes, less explicit exposition of themes, and stronger overall acting (Howard, as great as she was in her debut in “The Village”, has too difficult a climb to match up to Kidman here).

But “Dogville” also had what must have been an unintended ace up its sleeve -- viewer emotional empathy for the protagonist. Placing Grace as the victim in the first movie automatically granted her sympathy; in “Manderlay,” which is no less fierce a movie, her utilitzation as a tool in a political parable is more pronounced. Frankly, there's no more effective way to communicate to the American audience than to offer a character we can express concern over. I guess it makes blistering criticism that much easier to swallow.

Jeffrey Chen

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