"Razzle them. Dazzle them. Razzle dazzle them!" This is the mantra of Michael Shannon's central character in a mad, loosely based on a true crime story movie directed by so-called "rogue filmmaker" (I prefer the term "awesome filmmaker") Werner Herzog and produced by David Lynch. What he means by it, in the story, is ambiguous, but obviously a central point to his being, judging from the fact that the first time we meet him, the first words he says are exactly that, while holding a coffee mug that says it too.
This is how Herzog approached yet another crazy killer profile. He's not so interested in the motive, nor is he particular about the details of the case. He's simply interested in the poetry of the murderer and his murderous actions. To follow the coffee mug's urging, with us being said "them."
The busily titled My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is a companion piece to Herzog's last film Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, which was one of the best films of 2009. They were probably not intended to be a pair, but they make sense as such. They both take the look and skeleton of a generic straight-to-DVD cop movie, then eschew conventional plotting and award more attention to the details in their unhinged protagonists' madness. Like Nic Cage there, Michael Shannon's performance is almost reason enough to see this movie.
If Bad Lieutenant is a complete reimagining of an old Abel Ferrara film, this is a complete reimagining of a real murder that took place, with Herzog emphasizing a sense of the bizarre in both. In 1979, a San Diego man named Mark Yavorsky was dropped from a production of the Greek play Eumenides from the Oresteia trilogy, after being deemed too psychotic. He was to play the lead, who in the play kills his own mother with a sword. Instead, Yavorsky went on to kill his own mother, who she was living with at the time, at a neighbor's home.
The movie begins with two homicide detectives (Willem Dafoe and Michael Pena) being called onto the scene of the crime. After a quick examination, they realize that the murderer is still across the street. Brad, as he is called in this mostly fictionalized account, has taken two hostages and is demanding a safe passage to Mexico. SWAT team takes over as the detectives then interview Brad's fiancée (Chloe Sevigny) and theater director (Udo Kier), slowly unraveling the events of the past few weeks that led to Brad killing his equally strange mother (Lynch regular Grace Zabriskie).
Playing this character is a tightrope act. He's disturbed even from first impression. They are seeking a story that makes a killer engaging without being sympathetic or charismatic, two traits that are the usual go-tos when portraying killers on film. Brad sees the world differently. Rather than try to excuse or explain it, which would diminish the horror of his actions, Herzog invites us to step into it and, for a brief period of time, share this outlook.
One motif is Brad's view of life as performance art. For this, Herzog stages scenes where the actors on-screen would suddenly strike a pose towards the viewers and freeze; not via freeze frame, but the actors staying completely still, as if an invisible character has stepped forward for a soliloquy and they must become background. Except there is no such thing going on. It's very strange, but very effective in relaying a sense of morbid wait for the inevitable murder.
The poetry of the story comes not from the act of murder, but from the tragedy reflecting itself on a classical story thousands of years old, which falls in line with Oresteia's conclusion that the matricide continued the cycle of violence. Hey, if it results in a scene where an ostrich tries to eat Udo Kier's sunglasses, it's all good.
At the end of the film, I'm no closer to knowing why Brad killed his own mother with a sword. But I was razzled. I was dazzled. I was razzle dazzled.
DVD Bonus Features
Aside from the typical commentary, there's a 30-minute featurette that interviews both Herzog and screenwriter Herb Golder about bringing Yavorsky's story to the screen. It relays some amusing and insightful stories, like how the first time Herzog meets Yavorsky in his mobile home, Herzog was spooked by a photo of his best fiend Klaus Kinski sitting on a shrine dedicated to Aguirre: The Wrath of God. Herzog asked to leave immediately and never had contact with Yavorsky again, which one can guess resulted in the detached, impersonal depiction of Yavorsky in Brad.
What makes this DVD worthwhile, though, is the inclusion of Ramin Bahrani's short film Plastic Bag, which stars Herzog as a semi-animate plastic bag, floating through a harsh world that is indifferent to its existence. It's an excellent little film that is only loosely thematically connected to the main feature, but who cares?
"My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done" is on sale September 14, 2010 and is rated R. Drama. Directed by Werner Herzog. Written by Werner Herzog, Herbert Golder. Starring Brad Dourif, Chloe Sevigny, Grace Zabriskie, Michael Pena, Michael Shannon, Udo Kier, Willem Dafoe.
