samkan
It is incredible to me that someone would even THINK about doing a mock documentary on a SERIOUS subject with an intent to arouse our emotions. Drama requires talent in crafting dialogue, scenery and mood to convey a message: Be it clarity or ambiguity. Documentary requires skills in packaging other's points of view: Be it to underscore the maker's message or that of the speakers. What the makers of TLP have done is to avoid the work needed in drama and documentary by canning blunt messages and delivering them without the need of acting, directing, camera work, etc. The result is cheap and insincere. I wouldn't mind learning about this tragic incident from a real documentary where even if the producers' point of view was biased I could hear the actual words and see the expressions of the interviewees. Conversely, I could handle a fictional account where I might adopt and/or appreciate another's perception of the events and emotions involved.But to impose a mandated message by pulling our outrage, pity, anger and tragedy stings like TLP is shameful.
dee.reid
"...And the last thing that he saw on this Earth was the sparkling lights of Laramie, Wyoming."Characters are frequently speaking in poetics similar to that in "The Laramie Project," a film that if it weren't for its grim subject matter, could probably register somewhere as a darkly hopeful poem that would have been authored by none other than Edgar Allan Poe himself.Laramie, Wyoming was just a small dot on the U.S. Plains. It rests comfortably on plentiful farmland and everybody knows everybody and there isn't really a need to lock your door at night. But this small town in Wyoming became the center of a worldwide media frenzy for one cold, dark, chilling winter in October 1998 when 22-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten and left to die tied to a fence in an open field.Laramie's citizens are quick to denounce the crime, and emphasize that, "they are not a town of hate." Matthew was beaten, as we later find out, by two local kids, because he was a homosexual. The townsfolk were all hoping these were some out-of-town people but the fact the perpetrators are locals makes it even more heinous.I guess I should say I vaguely remember the case. I'm 20 now; I was 13 and in junior high school in 1998 when this story broke. For several months, all that was on the news was Matthew Shepard, Matthew Shepard - the gay college student beaten and left to die by fellow townspeople, who were also kids themselves. Matthew, we're told, wasn't born a winner; he was scrawny, wore braces until his death, short (5'2"), but he died a hero, at least in the eyes of his father Dennis (Terry Kinney).I didn't pay much attention to the story, but looking back now, with "The Laramie Project" still fresh in my mind, I now wish I had followed it more closely. This film, directed by Venezuelan-born Moises Kaufman (and based on his own play), which is the result of a collection of over 200 interviews by his fellow (gay & lesbian) New York theater workers with the citizens of Laramie, Wyoming, sticks with you long after it's finished, as person after person expresses their thoughts, feelings, and utter outrage that something as horrific as this crime could happen in America. Only IN America, could something like this happen. We are supposed to be in a country where people can live without fear of being harassed for their creed, gender, race, or sexual orientation.Referring to the film, it makes you rethink American values and wonder: Gosh, is this the degree at which people in this country hate? As a straight African-American male, it frightens me. It utterly, utterly frightens me at how often hate is preached in this country, and people swallow it up like it's the Gospels; it's not. Also, as an agnostic, it's not my duty to say whether or not I approve of the lifestyle myself, but I don't let that cloud my judgment because gays are also people, and we aren't perfect. But still, it's disturbing to see the amount of hate and animosity that was a result of Matthew's ordeal - "GAYS BURN IN HELL," "THANK GOD FOR AIDS" - from an evangelical Christian preacher, no less! (It makes me wonder if he really believes his own garbage.)By the time the film opens, the crime has already occurred, and the two young men responsible - Aaron McKinney (Mark Webber) and Russell Henderson (Garret Neergaard) - have already been brought in and are awaiting trial, as the young (but never seen) Matthew "Matt" Shepard is dying inside a hospital with his parents at his bedside, and a brave doctor (Dylan Baker) keeps the media and nation alert on his condition."Matt," as he was often called by those closest to him, is described as a kind and down-to-earth fellow who didn't hold a grudge against anybody, gay or straight. Christina Ricci is Romaine Patterson, a lesbian who knew him well and is certain Matt's beating was no robbery but a hate crime. Two law enforcement people (Clancy Brown and Amy Madigan) involved in the investigation find their lives changed drastically as a result of Matthew: Brown's character undergoes a radical shift in his personal views on the gay community and Madigan narrowly contracts HIV from handling Matt.The story is told passionately well in many personal and candid interviews with townsfolk. There are many actors here, some familiar, some not, but each serves as everyone else's support, since there are no clear-cut stars. Other familiars include Laura Linney as a sheriff's wife, Steve Buscemi as a philosophical mechanic, Janeane Garofalo as a lesbian school teacher, Joshua Jackson as a bartender, and Jeremy Davies as a theater student who gets the lead in "Angels in America."By the end of it all, the cameras pack up and leave, and a shattered town attempts to recover from a senseless spectacle of violence. They have to live with it now, while the rest of America gets to continue scot-free. We're told, that no anti-hate crime legislation was passed as a result of Matthew's beating, neither at a federal level or state level. With this in mind, the liberal ideology that things will get better in time no longer holds much water. The message is clear: the Matthew Shepard murder focused worldwide attention on hate, but why has so little been done to curb the violence? (*Shakes his head*) Only in America...9/10
shneur
Generally I stay away from documentaries, preferring stories with a plot to hold my wavering attention. "The Laramie Project" is, I suppose, not strictly speaking a documentary at all, as it uses professional actors, but it's closely based on audio interviews recorded right at the time of the events following Matthew Shepard's abduction, torture and murder in the eponymous Western town. I think that in this case realism and professionalism combined to fine advantage. This film communicates the pathos and poignancy of the drama itself, but also tremendous need of basically good citizens and good people to make things "all right," even when they are not all right at all. Prejudice and baseless hatred have been the bane of humankind forever. They derive from our roots as territorial creatures, where maximizing INTRA-group similarities and INTER-group differences were a means to survival. Now that our planet has become truly a "global village," such attitudes are not only shameful, but unless we can truly obliterate them from our minds and hearts, will ultimately lead to our own destruction. This is another of those films that everybody needs to view.
