Jayne Mansfield's Car

Dir: Billy Bob Thornton

2012

****

Billy Bob Thornton’s 2012 drama is overlong, muddled and unfocused. The structure is very poor and it is never quite clear what the director wants to achieve. I think this is why I liked it so much. There is nothing formulaic about it and I found it rather refreshing. The script is strong, the performances from the impressive cast are great and the cinematography is beautiful. It makes quite a few observations but the film is largely extraneous, or at least it feels that way as the story is never forced. The film is set in 1969 Morrison, Alabama. The Caldwell family includes two World War II veterans – Skip (Billy Bob Thornton) and Carroll (Kevin Bacon) and their fellow brother Jimbo (Robert Patrick) who never saw combat. Their sister Donna (Katherine LaNasa) lives out of town with her loud-mouth husband Neil (Ron White) while the three brothers live with or near their father, the family’s patriarch, Jim Caldwell (Robert Duvall), who is a World War I veteran. The siblings get on but only Jimbo is close to their father and shows similarities, even though war seems to be a big part of the family’s heritage. Skip clearly suffers mental-health problems after serving in the Air Force and Carroll is a hippy anti-war protester, scared that his son is to be drafted soon into the Vietnam war. Jim, the father, is a loud and proud bigot. A phone call from England one evening brings the family together as they learn that the siblings mother – Jim’s ex-wife – has died of cancer. Her new family are flying her body over as her wishes were to be buried near her home town of which she grew up. The Bedfords are made up of Phillip (Ray Stevenson), a World War II veteran and former Prisoner of war, his sister Camilla (Frances O'Connor), and their father Kingsley (John Hurt), also a World War I veteran. Jim has been cursing the name Kingsley ever since his wife left him for him many years ago. The family meet for the first time the day before the funeral and although Carroll and Donna are welcoming, there is hostility in the air. The following day, at the funeral service, Kingsley is overcome by the heat and emotion and collapses. At this point Jim feels sympathy for him and begins to befriend him. There are many sub-plots to the story involving the different characters. The theme of war is ever-present, with the children all having anti-war feelings having been through tough times in war, while the older men feel pride and seem to be pro-war, not having been through that much in battle. The two wars are clearly very different as are the experiences of all five men. The two boys who went to war are desperate for their father’s affection but he only really gives it to the brother that didn’t go to war. The same can be said of the Bedfords, as Kingsley is ashamed of his son for surrendering under order and being held as a POW for most of the war – totally overlooking the horrific experiences he went through. Carroll, the archetype anti-war protester, is shocked and saddened, that his son signs up because he thought the war in Vietnam looks ‘rock ‘n roll’. The title of the film refers to the automobile in which movie star Jayne Mansfield was supposedly decapitated in 1967. When a nearby town has a side show displaying the vehicle, Jim Caldwell takes Kingsley Bedford along to gawk at the grisly artifact – a pay to view show that happened in real life. Indeed, the car is still in a museum for people to look at. Billy Bob Thornton isn’t trying to make sense of anything, in fact, he’s showing the viewer that no matter how you try, most things make no sense, especially people. I read in an interview with Billy Bob Thornton that he probably won’t make another film after this. The film did take a lot of criticism but I’m not sure it was on point. From what I can tell, people’s arguments that it was too slow and too long (when it really wasn’t) but they sort of liked it just suggests that maybe it should have been stretched out as a television series. Indeed, he himself said  “I don’t really make movies that are what’s popular now. There’s too much talking in them, or they’re too long; ten years ago no one said that,” he lamented. The actor/writer/director believes the era of sitting back in a dark room and watching a lavish, epic drama unfold in the cinema is now gone. “You know, you can’t make a three-and-a-half hour movie. That attention span is gone for theaters,” he added. “So what about making ‘Gone with the Wind‘ kind of movies that have intermissions and put them on television? That way, a guy like me, who always gets his ass handed to him by the critics for having a movie that’s too slow and too long…won’t be too slow and too long for television. Pee anytime you want. Make a cheeseburger, anything you want to do.” It’s incredibly sad really, a television series would have been good I’m sure but I adore films like this, they certainly have a place but, thanks to uncreative studios, audiences are becoming more and more like fidgeting children. No phone could ever give you what the cinema gives. It is amazing he made this film after the trouble he had with the studios over All The Pretty Horses. Battling with Miramax/the Weinsteins, Thornton saw his version of the movie cut to ribbons. "They saw the cast, the director, Billy Bob Thornton, and the fact that we spent $50 million, and they never released our movie - though the cut still exists,” said star Matt Damon. “Billy had a heart problem at that time, and it was because his heart fucking broke from fighting for that film. It really fucked him up. It still bothers me to this day.” Jane Mansfield’s Car is about a lot of things but at its core is Thornton seeking the approval and acceptance of older men. He admits that he dwells on his violent Irishman father, who died when he was 18 years old. "There was abuse, both verbally and physically … he was a very intense guy who I don't think I ever had a conversation with." Robert Duvall, has become  his mentor and father figure – Jayne Mansfield's Car is the fifth film they have worked together on and Thornton admitted that "Every moment I wanted him to accept me and approve of me." Like I said, it isn’t perfect but it is perfect in not being perfect and I enjoyed it very much because of it.