Product: Snow Falling on Cedars (2000)
Rating: 4.0
Ponderous richness
I enjoyed Snow falling on cedars and found it touching, well-made and an intriguing film. There's a richness not at first apparent but which upon reflection reveals itself first too the eye then to the mind and heart. The cast is excellent with everyone doing a great job at recreating a small tight- knit Island community in the north-west USA.On the surface the movie is simple, there's a dead fisherman, Karl, whose childhood friend, Kazuo, another fisherman is put on trial for committing the formers murder. What so special about that, well nothing actually, the legal details are fairly run of the mill, what's interesting is the layers in the story. And this is why the acting is so important, each character has a thing or two to say about the murder event and in doing so a picture of island life builds up. A key observer and player is the island newspaper reporter, Ismael, superbly acted by Ethan Hawke. In many ways he is the one on trial because he finds out something that can turn the trial one way or the other, for he was once in love with the accused's wife. More than in love, they grew up together as childhood friends bridging the cultural divide of Japanese and American as kids can do better than any politician, and later they become dabblers in love as young adults. Yet Ismael lost an arm while fighting the Japanese Army on Tarawa, a key scene in the movie and an emotional moment speaking more of love's end than of war's violence. Ismael's life is part of the island history which itself is caught up in the dramatic events unfolding in the period as he grows from child of the Depression era to man of war time.Now Ismael's father was the town newspaper owner, editor and reporter, a one-man show. He stands full square as the glue bonding the community, seeing the community of the island as a harmonious place for all Americans, weather German, Italian or Japanese-Americans as he puts it when the news of Pearl Harbour hits the small community. In many ways not unlike the way 9/11 hit many lives in the world in recent years with all too obvious results for communities. But what the film captures brilliantly is the entwining of lives and events going from childhood into adulthood. Reaching into a common history with events like Pearl Harbour allows the audience to share a little in the intimacy, sense of value and unhurried life of the Island .The story told at a pace, best described as a stroll that occasionally becomes a trot and then a stoll again; the Island community, relatively harmonious is torn asunder by the wars events, the young men go off to war, the community of Japanese-Americans are shipped to camps like Mansanar for internment, people turn on each other like Ismael's father, life is upset, deals fall through, people are compromised and then years afterwards one mans death brings all that pain to the surface and reveals a Gordian knot of pain which the young man Ismael must unravel as best he can or face the guilt which surely follows from wronging anyone.Told in beautiful pictures, with a kind of literary quality, a thousand words a frame so to speak, the structure of the movie runs between past and present, delving into memories and pains unhealed and unspoken, flowing along like wave after wave on a calm day of the sea breaking onto a beach. The trial is less about law than redemption, refinding one's true self, one's core of values upon which a good and decent life is made while at the same time seeing off those fears, doubts and uncertainties which carry other people into the realm of an ignorant and an unjust plain poor decision making way, better known as prejudice. The story demonstrates all to clearly that justice is not a finely packaged precision guided piece of ordnance but a human taking stock, adding up and coming to terms with the past in order to live a better life in the present with healing and feeling. I assure you the movie is all of this, love, humanity and craft forming a balm which says live the best way you can.I recommend the soundtrack as well, it is in harmony with the movie and very much a stroll then a trot then a stroll. As for the book by David Guterson, it wasn't until I saw the movie and two or three times at that and pondered it a bit that I got some deeper meanings in it. At least see it for the wonderful photography.