For Criterion Consideration: David Gordon Green’s Undertow

by James McCormick

David Gordon Green is a favorite filmmaker with our writers here at Criterion Cast. With his sudden emergence in the world of comedic film and television (Pineapple Express and his run on Eastbound and Down) and his upcoming comedic homage to films such as Excalibur, Krull and Conan, Your Highness, seems to be another in the line of raunchy comedies with a lot of pot references. Not that there’s anything wrong with it.

But before these ventures, he was known in the indie film world as a wonderful director of small, tightly knitted films dealing with loss, heartbreak and friendship. His first feature length film, George Washington, is well deserved in the Criterion Collection, which brings us to the article at hand. The first installment in For Criterion Consideration is Green’s 2004 film Undertow. Sadly it’s a film that’s almost gone unnoticed since coming out, quietly going in and out of theaters (making less than $150,000 in its run), and just calls for the recognition it so rightly deserves.

Undertow tells the story of Chris Munn (Jamie Bell), who is a troubled teen who can’t help but be restless. He lives in an isolated part of Georgia, with his brother Tim (Devon Alan) and father John (Dermot Mulroney). John’s brother, Deel (Josh Lucas), comes back into his life, causing tension in the family. He’s there to get these gold coins John has, and finds them behind a family portrait. In a struggle for them, Deel kills John and goes to kill his sons, but they escape and take the gold with them. And the adventure continues, with a varying array of characters while Deel is still on the chase for them.

It has some great performances, especially from Jamie Bell and Josh Lucas. Jamie Bell, who is now Tintin in the new films based on Herge’s classic series, captures the angst of a teen so well, I know for a fact after seeing this film, I couldn’t wait to see him in much more. Josh Lucas is haunting, almost demonic, as Deel and captures the spirit of Robert Mitchum’s Harry Powell from Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter, which it borrows a bit from. I definitely don’t want to forget about Kristen Stewart, who of course is famous for the Twilight films, is fantastic as Lila.

It’s also produced by Terrence Malick, a recent dual Criterion Collection filmmaker, so it showed his faith in this project, someone who takes a decade or two sometimes to make another film. I think that pedigree just shows why the film has a spot waiting for it in the collection. Also, I think it might be easier to get the rights due to MGM releasing the original DVD of the film, which had a great edition. Hopefully Criterion would be able to retain the commentary from this release, unless they got David Gordon Green back for a new retrospective commentary and documentary.
So Criterion, please consider the film Undertow for the collection. I think it’s ripe for discovery from the fans and collectors who buy the films you put out there. It also has what I think is one of the greatest intros/credit sequence I’ve seen in the last decade. Hands down.

Do you have any films you’d like to see in the Criterion Collection? Send us your feedback and discuss with one another what makes a film a perfect fit for the collection.

source criterioncast via @Kstewangel