'Promised Land': Goes Over Old Ground

By Michael S. GoldbergeriBerkshires Film Critic
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Popcorn Column
by Michael S. Goldberger  

Focus Features
Matt Damon plays the role of Steve Butler, a salesman for the gas company Global.
Until some economic genius invents a great solution or we humans evolve considerably, the problems posed in director Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land" will continue to plague us. Civilization's ever-changing financial systems can't help but strew new batches of winners and losers throughout the landscape, upsetting our lifestyles along the way.
 
In this specific microcosm, the ever-declining feasibility of small farm America and new, game-altering discoveries of natural gas beneath those compromised meadows and fields have intersected with dramatic consequence. Arriving to profit from the resultant opportunity is Matt Damon's Steve Butler, gas company deal closer extraordinaire.
 
out of 4

He's a nice guy in a questionable occupation. Being interviewed at movie's outset for a major promotion, we get a snapshot. The victim of a Caterpillar plant closing back in Iowa that reverberated through an agrarian community dependent on jobs to subsidize its fading way of life, he is a staunch realist who peddles his background with a vengeance.

 
Shades of the much more sophisticated and fanciful "Local Hero" (1983), about Big Oil trying to buy up a small Scottish village, here the venue is rural Pennsylvania, and the $9 billion company looking to have its way is a natural gas titan named Global. No surprise, Butler's incursion is met with the gamut of reactions. For this, he is prepared.
 
However, he isn't quite ready for the wild card that presents itself in the form of John Krasinski's Dustin Noble, the energetic point man for Athena, a heretofore unfamiliar environmental group. While Steve has come up against such opposition in the past, this pesky adversary is hard to figure. Soon combatants, they battle for adherents.
 
Aiding Butler in his mission is wisecracking colleague, Sue Thomason, played with cynical wit by Frances McDormand. A single mom evincing not nearly a soupçon of the compassion we at times detect in Butler's eyes, she's about the commissions. Add to these personae Rosemary Dewitt as Alice, the local schoolmarm, and the formula is in place.
 
Expect neither great surprises nor some philosophically profound answer to the conundrum in question. Indeed, fracking, the method by which Global unearths the land's hidden treasure, remains controversial. Butler begrudgingly acknowledges that, but in the same breath contends, plain and simple, if you're not for gas, then you're for coal and oil.
 
Thus, once again, we are presented, thanks to the First Amendment exemplified in film, with yet another feature length mulling of Hobson's choice. But then that's part of being human. We're perennially figuring how many angels will fit on the head of a pin, a habit begun in our superstitious past and now applied to our so-called enlightened present.
 
Expectedly, the townsfolk take sides. It's the eco-contingent following the lead of local wise man Frank Yates (Hal Holbrook) -- now suddenly abetted by Krasinski's operative -- against the realists, pragmatists and a sprinkling of rather unsavory opportunists. Hence, if one is a thinking person, you just can't help being a little betwixt and between.
 
Fact is, we like Butler, probably because he is the everyman in all of us, a regular-sort trying to find the path between altruism and practicality. When he takes more than just a business interest in teacher Alice, but finds his affections impeded by the nervy Noble, he seems like the underdog. But sorry, can't tell you about the twist that's in store.
 
Suffice it to note that having the gray area of the plot overlaid with the uncertainties represented by the drama's natural enemies supplies an elevating element to the scenario. A solid portrayal by Krasinski, who co-wrote the screenplay with Damon, lends new invigoration to what is essentially an old cliché in currently topical clothing.
 
Good supporting performances establish the local color and personalize the quandaries confronting the citizens of the Pennsylvania burg. Tensions rise. To frack or not to frack? It's a loaded question, delivered with an implied insult to a long cherished heritage. The gas company didn't create the economic crisis, but it sure is taking advantage of it.
 
Global is an apt name for the megalomaniacal corporation in this metaphor. Count on a steady stream of such commiserative dramas as we struggle and adjust to doing business in a continually expanding world economy. All of which is but a variation on a recurring theme: man against the machine and the attempt to preserve humankind's dignity.
 
I think we'll win in the long run, though it could take a few centuries. You see, we have it in us, a hopeful notion tendered in this and almost all films about the daunting odds our species must continually overcome. And rest assured, after we find a solution to the woes outlined in "Promised Land," you have my good word we'll be on to the next dilemma.
 
"Promised Land," rated R, is a Focus Features release directed by Gus Van Sant and stars Matt Damon, John Krasinski and Frances McDormand. Running time: 136 minutes

 

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Simon's Rock Awarded Freedom to Read Grant

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Bard College at Simon's Rock was awarded a Freedom to Read Grant by the Newburger Schwartz Family Foundation. 
 
The grant was awarded to support the Alumni Library and Bard Queer Leadership Project in building a more robust collection of queer scholarship, starting a Queer Book Club, and hosting Drag Story Time events in partnership with Drag Story Hour of the Berkshires.
 
According to a press release:
 
In response to current educational threats with book bans affecting schools and libraries across the country and further proposed legislation against LGBTQ+ people's access to basic rights and education, Simon's Rock is actively seeking to create inclusive and equitable spaces for queer individuals. 
 
The Bard Queer Leadership Project and Alumni Library will utilize the grant funding to expand the library's current collection of queer books in order to fully enable the longevity of the Queer Book Club and the Bard Queer Leadership Project. The Queer Book Club will be an intergenerational space, open to local middle school students through rainbow seniors and will partner with local community organizations, to discuss queer books and learn about LGBTQ+ issues and experiences. Bard Queer Leadership Project students will eventually help lead this initiative as part of their leadership project training. 
 
The Queer Book Club will host their first meeting on April 6 at 3:00 p.m. at the Alumni Library, with following meetings on April 27 and May 11. This semester, the selected books are "Obie is Man Enough" and "He/She/They," both by Schuyler Bailar, inspirational speaker and first openly transgender NCAA Division swimmer, who was a guest speaker in the inaugural Queer Leaders Vision Forum in fall 2023 at Simon's Rock. Schuyler Bailar will return to campus for a book signing and pool party at the Kilpatrick Athletic Center on April 19 at 7:00 p.m. Participants in the Queer Book Club will receive a free copy of either book of their choice. 
 
The first Drag Story Time will be on Saturday, March 30 at 2:00 p.m. at the Simon's Rock Alumni Library and is open to all LGBTQ+ affirming individuals. The event is in partnership with Drag Story Hour of the Berkshires with local drag queens JV and Poppy DaBubbly. The second Drag Story Time will be Saturday, April 27 with drag queen Poppy DaBubbly and drag king Sativo Green.
 
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