Undertow (2004)
Directed by David Gordon Green
The Munns, father John and sons Chris and Tim, recede to the woods of rural Georgia. Their life together is forever changed with the arrival of Uncle Deel, though the tragedy that follows forces troubled Chris to become a man.
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3 films that influenced Undertow
What critics say influenced Undertow
The bad feeling over the gold coins comes to a head in an instant of violence, and the boys run away from home, entering a world that evokes " The Night of the Hunter " (1955).
This story of two brothers (Jamie Bell and Devon Alan) whose dreary, mud-slathered, peptic-ulcer–blighted existence in the swampy south is shattered by the arrival of a nasty uncle (Josh Lucas) seeking a stash of gold plays rather like The Night of the Hunter, by way of Badlands, by way of Macon County Line.
Their unwanted adventure turns into yet another kind of plot, a Southern gothic thriller haunted by The Night of the Hunter, impelled by their uncle's implacable greed and brutality, and quite a bit more generic than what's come before.
Filmmaker David Gordon Green merges the dreamlike qualities of his "All the Real Girls'' with gritty -- or more precisely, dirty -- family drama and "The Night of the Hunter'' thriller elements.
The most striking reference point for David Gordon Green's Undertow is Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter .
What begins as an homage to the Southern fried films of the ‘70s (almost anything with Burt Reynolds) soon turns into a family horror film, not unlike The Night of the Hunter (1955), but with a tone all its own.
Over the course of his own three films (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) Malick has steadily moved away from ordinary plot mechanics and into pure poetry.
This story of two brothers (Jamie Bell and Devon Alan) whose dreary, mud-slathered, peptic-ulcer–blighted existence in the swampy south is shattered by the arrival of a nasty uncle (Josh Lucas) seeking a stash of gold plays rather like The Night of the Hunter, by way of Badlands, by way of Macon County Line.
Green wasn't born when Malick's first movie, ''Badlands," came out in 1973, and he was only 3 when ''Days of Heaven" was released five years later.
Green tells his story with sensitivity and novelistic attention to detail that recalls the famous work directed by "Undertow" producer Terrence Malick, "Badlands."
Malick has also made three films -- all masterworks -- that have moved in the opposite direction: from heavy plot ("Badlands") to mixed ("Days of Heaven") to very little plot ("The Thin Red Line").
His films remind me of " Days of Heaven ," by Terrence Malick (one of this film's producers), in the way they are told as memories, as if all of this happened and is over with and cannot be changed; you watch a Green film not to see what will happen, but to see what did happen.
Over the course of his own three films (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) Malick has steadily moved away from ordinary plot mechanics and into pure poetry.
Not since Terrence Mallick (Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line) has an American director conjured a sense of place, and time, with such atmospheric magic.
Malick has also made three films -- all masterworks -- that have moved in the opposite direction: from heavy plot ("Badlands") to mixed ("Days of Heaven") to very little plot ("The Thin Red Line").