Mothman Does Hollywood
The book The Mothman Prophecies is nihilistic,
and if one accepts its assertions, disconcerting. Not exactly blockbuster material.
And yet, in early 2002, a big-budget
film version of The Mothman Prophecies was released. The movie wildly
veers from much of Keel's book, fictionalizes much of the story (yet
claims to be based on true events), adds some upbeat sentiments, and stars
Über-Buddhist Richard Gere.
And yet, oddly enough, the film is able to capture some of the basic feel and
ideas of Keel's book, ideas that have not really been explored in pop media
before.
Instead of recreating John Keel's yearlong field investigation
in Point Pleasant, the movie focuses on John Klein (Richard Gere), a famous
reporter for the Washington Post. The events are also dragged into the
present day (curious, since the one major public event in the book, a real disaster,
is kept as the centerpiece of the movie). Klein is no
Fortean investigator, but a happily married political reporter and commentator.
The film opens with Klein skipping out on the office Xmas party to help his
wife Mary (Debra Messing)
view a potential new house.
WORD TO THE WISE: fast forward through the first 15-20 minutes. You and I will
be the better for your discretion. Let me sum up: The Kleins see the house,
have closet sex, leave, Mary sees some crazy CGI red thing in the street that
runs them off the road, she cracks her head, cat-scans find a tumor (in the
shape of a Y, just like the CGI Mothman thing) Mary starts sketching ominous
Blair Witch knock-offs, she dies, John is sad.
Ok, now, you can start watching the movie again. Anyway,
for reasons that are not entirely clear to him or anyone else, John gets sucked
into strange occurrences around Point Pleasant, West Virginia. This is where
the action really begins. The filmmakers pick and choose some of the creepiest
and most evocative moments in Keel's book, and use them as the basis for the
rest of the film. Gordon Smallwood (Will
Patton) is clearly based on Woody Derenberger, and relays messages from
Indrid Cold (now a menacing and ethereal presence instead of a Space Brother).
Gordon hooks up with John at gunpoint, as he is certain Klein has been stalking
him for days before he ever arrives in West Virginia. Time and space inconsistencies
abound, as do phone hijinks. None of these events make much sense, and instead
are played for a high creep factor. Which works perfectly well with the feel
of the Mothman book.
Once in town, Klein pairs up with the pretty local
sheriff Connie Parker (Laura
Linney), and the two begin to investigate weird claims and occurrences.
Inevitably, John and Connie develop romantic feelings for each other. If only
I could find romance while spending cold nights staking out old
haunted chemical plants, or questioning country folk who have seen a flying
version of Bigfoot, but I digress. But as Hollywood loves a romantic triangle,
John's dead wife Mary becomes entangled in the Mothman phenomena. Let me just
say that while Debra Messing doesn't play live characters terribly well, she
is great in this film as a corpse. John's desperate desire to contact, or at
least understand the death of, his wife takes the weirdness to a personal level.
The film jettisons the UFO's and MiB's in favor of a strange multi-dimensional
ghost story.
As in Keel's book, Indrid Cold's messages begin to
prophesize disasters. John decides (perhaps because of his inability to save
his own wife) to take this opportunity to help people. He tracks down an author
and expert on this phenomenon, Dr. Alexander Leek (Alan
Bates), to help him decipher the situation. Yes, that's L-E-E-K, try holding
it up in front of a mirror.
Now, may I say, I can only hope to be as cool as Alexander
Leek when I grow up. After lecturing Klein on the prehistory and history of
ultra-terrestrials (the word is never used, but the meaning is plain), he goes
on to explain that he too tried to follow Mothman's prophecies to save people.
He then stridently informs us that it landed him in an insane asylum for five
years, and asks Klein "Do you know what that does to a man"? DAMN! Mr. Bates
plays Ke-, um, Leek, as just a touch mad yet with an insane insight into to
the nature of the universe. He sums up Indrid Cold's incrutable messages by
asking Klein if he, clearly superior to a cockroach, has ever tried explaining
himself to one? The Mothman Prophecies may have it's problems, but any
film that has an extended discourse by a madman on ultra-terrestrials, citing
cave paintings and set in a library, gets my dollar.
Armed with this "wisdom", Klein must decide whether
to embrace the madness of the Mothman Prophecies, potentially averting some
tragic catastrophe, or wash his hands of the whole convoluted affair. I won't
give away the answer here, but the filmmakers wisely adopt some of Keel's nihilism
for the film's climax, only to throw a little of it away for the sake of Hollywood
sentimentality.
On the whole, I was surprised at the performances and
skill in this film, barring the first twenty minutes. The aforementioned first
twenty minutes, all set in Washington D.C., contain most of the worst acting
in the film. Most of the annoying bits in the film are here as well, most particularly
film-school cuts and jumps that seem to have been added just to look showy,
and to have "scary" bits for the movie trailer (indeed, much of the trailer
is derived from these scenes). Once the film moves to Point Pleasant, we enter
into another, much more interesting movie. Instead of the slick blacks and reds
of Washington (and many Hollywood thrillers and horror movies), everything in
West Virginia is gray. As a long-time resident of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic,
I recognize the desolate gray November scenery. Personally, I have even more
reason, as the film was shot in and around Pittsburgh, where I lived for three
years. Those familiar with the city should be able to identify a number of locations
around Oakland (the University of Pittsburgh
and the Carnegie Museum in particular), a few downtown, and one on the southern
riverbank of the city. Regardless, the gray country landscapes, strange small
town, and hypnotic ambient soundtrack combine to give a sort of "Twin Peaks
East" feel to much of the proceedings.
Richard Gere is actually quite good here. Clearly he
is a natural to play the successful reporter with everything going right in
the world. But with the exception of a heroic act near the end, he also does
a good job trying to regain some control over anything after the death of his
wife. Gere's usual quiet, "Zen", slightly superior demeanor keeps him quiet
and slightly taken aback as the rest of the cast tells him things. In essence,
with the exception of his scenes with Laura Linney's Sheriff Connie, Gere's
Klein acts as a near-silent proxy or avatar for the viewer, moving from clue
to clue.
Klein's relationship with Connie is an interesting
change from the book, but an unexpected one. Along with the specter of his dead
wife, Connie gives Klein a stake in the phenomenon beyond curiosity. Linney
isn't given much to do here, other than to comfort and occasionally skeptically
ground Klein in his quest for the truth (shades of The X-Files here).
In his book, Keel does have a female partner (a local newspaper reporter), but
she is significantly older and less attractive than Laura Linney, and married
to boot. Instead, Keel describes nearly all of the other women of Point Pleasant
as young, lithe, and attractive. Apparently, I really need to reconsider following
this "UFO Investigator" career path.
The other two significant roles in the film are heavily
inspired by Keel's book. Will Patton is excellent as Gordon Smallwood, an average
man contacted by forces from beyond and forced into the role of a prophet. Alan
Bates is a bit more over the top as Alexander Leek, a very different sort of
man who tried and failed to deal with these forces. But both represent well
some of the "High Strangeness" in Keel's book.
Lastly, there is the Mothman himself. Like Keel, the
filmmakers use this apparition as a symbol and focusing point for their own
explorations of the strange. Like the Flying Saucer, the Mothman stands for
the strange, and potentially dangerous. Surprisingly, the Mothman is used for
little else in the film. In Keel's book, there are several Mothman-related encounters
and chase scenes (most interestingly, when it follows a bloodmobile) that are
more exciting than those in the film.
In both versions, The Mothman Prophecies
offers an alternative to more mainstream approaches to the paranormal in twentieth
century American culture. The 2002 film version stylistically treads some of
the same ground as The X-Files or Twin Peaks, but the focus on
exploring the emotional and philosophical elements of an unusual take on paranormal
phenomenon sets it apart from flying saucers and little gray men. Keel's book
is much more out there, and while including UFOs and MIBs, spins these elements
to much wilder ends. The film is a nice, stylistic, slice of weirdness with
several unsatisfying elements (mostly involving Klein's relationship with his
wife). Keel's book is a comprehensive smorgasbord of High Strangeness, one that
is a bit of a mind-blower of insane inspiration, whether the reader believes
Keel or not.