MovieChat Forums > South of Heaven, West of Hell (2000) Discussion > What a train wreck!

What a train wreck!

posted 20 years ago by kevkraft4
12 replies | jump to latest

All I can say is that Dwight Yokam must have a lot of friends or fans in the cast itself to have included the star power he has in this movie. But I can't help but wonder if they all were ultimately embarrassed at having lent their talents to this train wreck. As an aspiring moviemaker myself, about to shoot my first feature, I look at this movie as a great lesson on HOW NOT TO MAKE A MOVIE. A movie begins with a great script, which this obviously is not. There's not continuity, not effective segues, a lot of seemingly unrelated material. You need a great director. Dwight Yokam doesn't look like he knows what he's doing. There's not style or poetry to his direction and the actors seem to be tolerating his lack of talent or skill. The cast is first-rate, although largely miscast. Billy Bob Thorton was wasted in a stupid role that he tried to salvage, when he shouldn't have been cast in the role to begin with. Brigette Fonda looked like she was doing this as a favor for a friend or for a paycheck.

I'm surprised this thing was released by anyone. And it may not have...it might have simply escaped!!!

Oh, I could say more about this flick--and we turned it off after thirty-five minutes, seeing nothing of value to come.

Dwight Yokam should feel properly embarrassed.

"Love God, hate sin, live a clean life."

[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] kevin-uphill 19 years ago

if you only saw 35 mins how can you evaluate the movie. that's just arrogance and ignorance. it is a different movie from the norm, yet with an eerie charm and displacement of the viewers emotions. these characters defects are symptomatic of a society without true values or order. the title says it all and is an ironic play on the titles of previous 'westerns' such as the good the bad and the ugly and so on. if you dont like how a movie starts that doesnt mean its a bad movie, just that you dont know how to tolerate its style. pray to your god that your first movie meets with more tolerance and lets hope YOU can take some risks as a filmmaker and not always have to follow 'THE RULES'.

[–] kevkraft4 19 years ago

Are you serious??? Do you know anything about moviemaking??? Kevin...script critics and movie reviewers can tell whether a script is worth making by the first TEN MINUTES, as a general rule. If a script reader doesn't think it's abolsutely GREAT by that time, the script is rejected. If a movie hasn't done something in merely TEN minutes, what would make anyone think it would do so in THIRTY-FIVE minutes. A movie didn't just START an ahour and a half, it's a third of the way completed! A screenwriter and a moviemaker, be it a director or whatever, had damn well better be able to enthrall his or her audience in the first several minutes, and had better do it exceptionally, or it's all over. I know...I am a screenwriter and a director. So you could say, compared to you, that I'm somewhat of an expert. Listen and learn before you make such uneducated statements.
Oh, and, just so you know...it isn't always about following the rules. It comes right down to BASIC but effect storytelling, sir. This was not a good movie, plain and simple, and I defy you to find anyone besides yourself, who knows about moviemaking or storytelling, to come to its defense. This movie wasn't released, it escaped!

"I've got nothing to hide, nothing to prove, no axe to grind and nothing to lose!"

[–] kevin-uphill 19 years ago

i have little to add except one can't have an open minded discussion with such narrow minded views. And being a "screenwriter" and "director" does not make you an expert. This will ofcourse not reach you because you do not understand that movies are ART and art is subjective. How would you feel if someone judged your movie having seen less than a quarter of it. i can see this is pointless -you can't appreciate credibilty. Censorship at its worst happens when those that censor have not seen the whole movie eg. the life of brian.

[–] kevkraft4 19 years ago

Censorship and bad screenwriting/moviemaking are two separate subjects. PLease stay on topic.
If you enjoyed this movie, God bless ya for it. Maybe you can make its sequel yourself. You certainly can't do any worse than Dwight did.

"I've got nothing to hide, nothing to prove, no axe to grind and nothing to lose!"

[–] kevin-uphill 18 years ago

i will say that i admire its invention and unconventionality. Far more interesting to me than most of the stuff coming out of the studios these days..i like peckinpah's movies and to me this has a similar feel...with an uncompromising nasty edge....i never knew where the movie was going ...so its unpredictable too. i note that most people dont like this movie...i think i like some movies others dont like ...Heavens Gate is a favourite of mine ( in its full 4 hour version)for example...ho hum..

[–] rzajac 9 years ago

I'm with ya on this. I suspect your interlocutor in this thread is likely very, very expert in the real-life nuts and bolts of lucrative film work. I think "South" was a kind of labor of love; not to say that the producers willingly forewent a payoff for their investment, but that they could see Dwight was making art, and were kind enough not to intervene. Along with you, I too think he was making art, and did.

The flick defies expectations, and for some people that means they're going to conclude that "nothing" "happens" in the first 35min, and they turn it off. Movies are the art of showing the invisible, and sometimes there's no telling who won't see.

--
And I'd like that. But that 5h1t ain't the truth. --Jules Winnfield

[–] sushikat8 17 years ago

I agree.. This is probably one of the worst if not the worst movies I've ever seen. It still gives me nightmares after having seen it probably over 6 years ago!

[–] NotMoreMovies 17 years ago

^^Ditto!^^

I think seeing this movie gave me PTSD

I sometimes wake up screaming, thinking Dwight Yoakham has produced another movie.

Too bad there wasn't a literal train wreck in this movie, it might have helped things.

The real problem with this movie, as I foung out later, is that if you don't understand the backstory to this movie it makes no sense.

Since the backstory wasn't well defined in the film, most people hated it for that reason.

The reason nothing in it makes sense is because this story takes place in Purgatory (between heaven and hell, so the title was literal), and everyone is already "dead."

[–] f-u-b-a-r-12 16 years ago

Great cast, good story, bad everything else! I caught this late one night and noticed the great cast so I decided to give it a chance! Baaaad idea! This really was not a good film! Now I think Dwight did a good job of filming, the scenery was nice and all, all and all a beautifully shot film, but everything else fails! Where Dwight did a good job on filming, he did a a HORRIBLE job on the script! The overall story is a good concept that could have definitely worked, but the script is just bad! The great cast could not save the script, but as bad as the script was the acting was almost as bad!

Every actor, even the great Billy Bob Thorton, looked lost! It seems like in every scene the actors were improvising, thinking very hard, and slow, about what to say! The pace was horrible! I swear to God there is and average of 5 seconds between each sentence in this film! The so-called action scenes sucked, oh, and did I mention how horrible the script was! So basically what I'm saying is, with a good script, this movie good have been pretty good, if the actors would have then pulled their wieght! It felt like a slow paced 50's western! Totally not up to date in the film making!

Well I'm a victim of circumstance!
I thought you call it your pecker?

[–] Shut_Up_Lige 16 years ago

Could you repeat that?

Watch 'em Abe, I seen 'em do some things!

[–] davidwile 11 years ago

Hey folks,

While having never been in the business of making films, I have been enjoying good stories as long as I can remember, and that predates television by a few years. This was not a good story to me, but then again, I have never been trained in the arts. I am speaking solely from a layman's point of view.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile