At once inaccessible and condemnatory for its audience, General Orders No. 9 takes a very firm stance on the future of human civilization’s development and makes it perfectly clear that it doesn’t like our tendency to adapt the Earth to our needs and not vice versa. Its tone is stern and even throughout, which only makes the whole endeavor that much more preachy. Director Robert Persons has created a film whose very format will make it difficult for the average viewer to digest, and on top of that he layered a messaging that wags its finger the whole time as if to say “You know how you’re living isn’t right. Go back to a simpler time.” The message isn’t a bad one, but how he puts it across and the uncompromising scorn the film packs with it makes General Orders No. 9 little more than a quirky calling card that most people will just throw away without a second thought.
The difference between a discussion and a lecture is that the former invites feedback and argument while the latter commands obedience and uninterrupted observation. Neither is inherently better than the other, and, to Persons’s credit, the basic format of film is traditionally a one-way street. For most documentaries that’s not a problem since they usually aim to inform or explore and not indoctrinate, but that’s essentially the route Persons takes. He’s no looking for rapport and, judging from the tone of the film, he’s not interested in discussing his very strict viewpoint on the plight of American civilization, even though there’s a very vocal camp that would suggest he’s advocating regression and not progression or even correction.
As made clear in General Orders No. 9, Persons argues that humanity has advanced to a dangerous stage in its level of adaptation. Where once mankind altered habits and diets to fit their surroundings, they’ve become a species that manipulates the world making it adhere to the rules they set forth instead. Country-spanning highways, the concrete jungles of cities, and the nature that is reshaped to fit their structures are his primary focus and he uses it to hammer at the same point over and over: we’ve gone too far and we need to turn back. He’s not asking us to return to live in caves or to all live as farmers, but rather to downgrade our largest human confluences from their current major metropolitan areas to smaller towns which hum with the life of their inhabitants instead of a life of their own.
It’s the kind of “good ol’ day” thinking often chided in popular media and from the perspective of someone who lives in New York City, like this reviewer, it sounds painfully naïve. General Orders No. 9 seems to lack a firm grasp of social advancement and has a message suggesting it thinks cities aren’t any better suited to accommodate the massive levels of commerce, or that if it is, the close proximity afforded to businesses that comes with being in a major city isn’t enough of an advantage to overrule a return to townships.
The train of thought is an interesting one to ponder, but that’s assuming the film’s structure doesn’t scare the audience it needs to reach out the door. With no cohesive direction to speak of, General Orders No. 9 is William Davidson’s patient narration (perhaps meant to be Uncle Remus’s Bre’r Rabbit calling from beyond the grave) laid over maps, landscape photos, and quick, otherwise unrelated video clips. If his aim was to create something nuanced or quaint in its adherence to an old-timey sensibility of artifact memory, Persons sabotaged himself by taking it to an unnecessary level of abstraction and pairing it with a message that anyone living in the modern age can poke more and more holes in with each passing minute.
Has humanity lost touch with the planet that used to play such a large role in shaping its living arrangements and customs? Of course. Should that issue be presented and changes made accordingly? Sure. Has Robert Persons helped that case with General Orders No. 9? Probably not, because the people willing to take the time to listen will assuredly be turned off by his approach and tone.
"General Orders No. 9" opens June 24, 2011 and is not rated. Documentary. Written and directed by Robert Persons. Starring William Davidson.
