I-40 to Memphis, 3-18-2010By juxtaposing image, text, and sound, James Benning's American Dreams creates a fractured account of two personal relationships: Arthur Bremer and George Wallace, James Benning and Hank Aaron. Bremer wants to kill Wallace, Benning wants to be Aaron. But the careful articulation of their desires is suppressed by the sound of the evening news and the very songs that are meant to articulate desire. As the society of false needs and consumer consciousness matures, it is impossible to focus on any one narrative (baseball cards, diary entries, or sound bytes) for long. The Dreams Benning describes are intensely private, but cannot be fully understood by the audience or, indeed, those who dream them. When they come to fruition, the result is pure spectacle: a gunshot, a crowd cheering wildly.
RR is supposed to be a film about consumption, but I wish Benning tackled the topic in a style more reminiscent of American Dreams. While the sound bytes are back (Eisenhower's speech, the Bible), trains are less effective images than baseball cards and diary text. In RR, there is no human connection between wanting and getting; we see AutoMax cars filled with SUVs, but there is no depiction of the compulsion to own one. While the shots are occasionally beautiful, Benning seems to be reducing the agency of the filmmaker to the bare minimum, and the result is a less compelling kind of dream. If film's frame makes objective truth "pie in the sky," it has an obligation to surpass it.
