I skipped the opening night movie (21) because it would be coming out soon and I had some things to take care of (aside from the fact it didn't seem like it'd set me on fire), so I've only just been able to see my first film at South by Southwest 2008, and if this is any indication, it's going to be another great year.
David Modigliani's Crawford is a about much more than the major change felt initially when George W. Bush first moved there in 2000 a few months before the election. It's more than you get out of a trailer or a quote from a friend. In fact, Crawford, Texas itself is a lot more than it may seem like at first.
This movie is more than a chronicle of events, humorous anecdotes, or an examination of what direction small-town America went in during these last eight long Bush Years. This is a movie about the future, and the film's relevance is even greater considering the pivotal role of the recent Texas Primary and the still uncertain picture regarding the Democratic nominee.
The intellectual elite (high-thread-counters, in the Hollywood Elsewhere parlance) may have it stuck in their heads that small towns across the country are full of ignorant, tobacco-chewing pro-Bush morons, a complacent idiocracy. Many saw the 2004 election map as straight up red and blue thanks to the arcane effect of the Electoral College on our voting system. Crawford as presented in the documentary by pro-Bushies and anti-Bush residents alike is that it's definitely a purple town, and you'd be surprised how often this is true in what are considered "rural" communities.
Those particular locals include a woman who owns a Bush merchandise shop and a Baptist preacher who prays for the day Bush will visit his church, expected types you'd see in "Bush Country". They also count among them anti-war activists who founded a Peace House and kids who completely defy the stereotype of their small town by not "chewing grass and wearing boots".
There are good ol' boys who as "good ol'" as they come but don't fall in line with the crap others buy on Fox News each night. They know Bush only gets outside with a chainsaw to get at some cedar trees when there are cameras on him and they wish he'd pick up more of his trash.
Plenty of people dislike the Bush regime and are aware of how disingenuous the "Crawford Good Ol' Boy" image is, but the more important examination, which Modigliani wisely chooses to focus on, is the tragic rise and fall evinced in the 74 minutes that the film runs. I watching it, the movie feels longer and richer than its runtime suggests.
The beginning of the Bush years in Crawford begins a local economic boom: every storefront on the main street is rented, and the town's former glory many recall comes back. As the years wear on, we approach the point where the country began to implode, and once it does, it's kind of surprising how bad things turn out until you remind yourself that George W. Bush invaded Crawford before Afghanistan or Iraq.
For me, the most pivotal story and relationship present in the film is shared by Misti Turbeville (a progressive, liberal history teacher), and a young man who became one of her pupils during those years named Tom Warlick. Tom went from believing everything he was told to searching out his own truth and standing up for it.
Tom goes through years of being picked on and emotionally crucified just for having his beliefs. One day he went to school wearing a homemade t-shirt that read "America Your Hands Are Bloody" listing the military casualties of most of the U.S.'s major wars. I grew up in north Texas, and I didn't make one of those shirts, but I know what just having that opinion is like, and it isn't pleasant.
In the film, Tom Warlick leads what I consider to be the epitome of the young "examined life": the kid who does like Walt Whitman urged and tore the pages out of the book of life that offended logic, reason, and decency and blazed his own path. Teachers like Mrs. Turbeville are the reason guys like him make it through the bullying and the intimidation. During Q&A after the screening, Misti remarked she thought Crawford "has matured like the nation has matured," which I took to mean that whether or not everyone is more open to the idea of thinking about and doing things differently, they know it's time for the new direction toward progress that Tom represents.
I'll say that you should take care reading other reviews that may ruin seeing the movie yourself. This is a movie that should not be spoiled for anyone. It really says something about where "red America" is at this point in time.