| Jon Jost, independent film-maker. The early | | | | and, being one of Jost's long takes, we have |
| films7. Last Chants for a Slow DanceTom of | | | | ample time to consider why this should be. |
| 'Last Chants for a Slow Dance' (1977) is one | | | | When Jost draws attention to colour, such as |
| of those statistics; married, father of two, | | | | in his frequent shots of a girl applying |
| on the verge of divorce, and unemployed. He | | | | make-up, it is nearly always to emphasise its |
| is also a desperate human being, unable to | | | | artificiality, its capacity to distract and |
| cope with marriage, fatherhood, or steady | | | | conceal. In this scene the TV and the rest |
| employment, and, in the eyes of society, a | | | | of the screen vie for our attention. What is |
| misfit.Here, for the first time, Jost has | | | | going on in the rest of the screen is really |
| created a convincing character in a | | | | terribly bleak; Tom is having a meaningless |
| convincing situation. The direct | | | | one-night-stand with a girl he has just met |
| communication between film-maker and audience | | | | and doesn't care about, and in the morning he |
| has gone, or at least, taken a step back, and | | | | will be gone.But what is happening on the TV |
| the film presents us with a narrative in more | | | | screen is depressing too; an |
| or less the same way that other films present | | | | audience-participation game show, in which |
| us with a narrative. A deliberate hole, | | | | people's lives literally become merged with |
| however, is left in the illusion; at the | | | | TV, and which, broadcasting its phoney spirit |
| beginning of the film, before the 'character' | | | | of competitive bonhomie, is nothing less than |
| speaks, we hear the actor say: "Shall I start | | | | a brain-washing exercise, designed to sedate |
| now? You said thirty seconds." In this, and | | | | its viewers while instilling values |
| other ways, Jost reminds us that we are | | | | favourable to capitalism.The whole scene is a |
| sitting in a cinema watching a film, and | | | | depiction of emptiness disguised, and as such |
| therefore that any meanings we perceive have | | | | is a depiction of Tom's world, in which the |
| been deliberately put there as a means of | | | | distribution of values is out of balance with |
| communication between himself and us.'Last | | | | the needs of reality. Later in the scene, |
| Chants for a Slow Dance' works partly as a | | | | when the girl walks in front of the TV, we |
| psychological study, in that Tom's decline | | | | see the coloured image of the screen |
| from restless young man to murderer can be | | | | superimposed on her body. This betrayal of |
| seen as a function of his own maladjusted | | | | the illusion is Jost's way of ensuring that |
| personality; we are even given an indication | | | | we are not merely fascinated and distracted |
| of the origin of his problems: "Everything | | | | by his trick photography.The turning point |
| goes so fast. I don't remember anything. I | | | | for Tom comes after he has looked at a folder |
| don't remember my childhood, except that my | | | | of criminal records. Each page has a photo |
| father was always beating me, and I was | | | | of the criminal and a summary of his |
| always running away." Running away is all he | | | | activities and characteristics, including |
| learned to do as a child, and all he knows | | | | (the detail which fascinates Tom the most) |
| how to do as an adult. But at the same time, | | | | his tattoos. In Tom's eyes these little |
| Jost makes it clear that, whatever the | | | | 'stories', which situate their subjects in a |
| reasons for Tom's maladjustment, it is cues | | | | recognisable relationship to society, give |
| from society which prompt him to take the | | | | meaning to their subjects' lives. And so he |
| action he does take.Tom is already desperate | | | | has found a last chance to give meaning to |
| when the film opens; in a society which | | | | his own life; by becoming a criminal he can |
| places high value on employment, material | | | | become a story, in newspapers, on TV, and |
| wealth, and family life, he is unemployed, | | | | preserved for posterity in police |
| broke, and alienated from his wife and | | | | records.Jost only interpolates one 'montage' |
| children. He resorts to the only way of life | | | | shot into the narrative, but it is one the |
| he can cope with; driving around in his truck | | | | viewer will never forget: suddenly we are |
| from town to town, ostensibly looking for | | | | watching, in merciless close up, a live |
| work, but really seeking the comfort of | | | | rabbit having its head forced over a |
| anonymity, casual sex, and escape from | | | | chopping-block. We see the helpless look in |
| responsibilities.When Tom does return home it | | | | its eye as it struggles, then it is |
| is only to be harangued, and threatened with | | | | decapitated and we see the blood spurt. |
| divorce, by his wife, who is now pregnant | | | | Then, one by one, its paws are chopped from |
| for the third time. She verbally attacks him | | | | its still-twitching body. That, Jost |
| for his long absences from home, his failure | | | | implies, is how much chance a man like Tom |
| to find a job, and his lack of concern for | | | | has against the coercive power of society and |
| her and the children. Her attack is | | | | its media.Tom's final, irreversible act is |
| justified, of course, and she probably | | | | even more disturbing than the slaughter of |
| shouldn't have married him in the first | | | | the rabbit. He comes across a man whose car |
| place, but this is no help to Tom, who cannot | | | | has broken down in an isolated rural spot, |
| help the way he is, and no consolation for | | | | and stops to help him. They chat, and it |
| the society upon which he will take out his | | | | turns out that the man comes from the same |
| frustration. It is Jost's view, and his case | | | | town as Tom, and, like Tom, has a wife and |
| is convincing, that Tom is society's | | | | children. They have something in common, but |
| problem.Having been finally rejected by his | | | | the man has kept all the things Tom has lost, |
| wife, Tom hits the road again. He stops at a | | | | and for the first time we seem to be seeing |
| cafe, and while eating comes across an | | | | Tom engaging in a friendly conversation, |
| amusing letter in a newspaper and reads it | | | | talking for the pleasure of communicating.But |
| out to a man sitting next to him. The letter | | | | just when we begin to think he might be human |
| is a sexual joke, and the man says: "You | | | | after all, and that this new-found friendship |
| don't believe that's really a letter do you? | | | | might be the start of an upturn in his life, |
| Those letters are made up by some guy sitting | | | | Tom casually gets a gun from his truck and |
| in a back room. The government puts out that | | | | robs the man. "I can't get work," he |
| trash to keep people's minds off their real | | | | explains, "I've got no money, this (the gun) |
| problems." This is the nub of Jost's | | | | is all I got left." Then he leads the man |
| argument; that the media floods society with | | | | into the woods, and shoots him. The need to |
| stories which distract people from their real | | | | align himself with society's |
| problems, and perpetuate dehumanised values, | | | | media-perpetrated values has taken precedence |
| in this case that a wife exists as a sexual | | | | over all human values.The film ends with a |
| object for her husband, which encourage them | | | | long take of Tom's face as he drives his |
| to remain distracted even when the story is | | | | truck, forcing us to contemplate the meaning |
| forgotten. It is Jost's contention that Tom, | | | | of what we have just seen. And there is much |
| with his lack of intellect, and lack of | | | | to contemplate, for, in this film, Jost has |
| purpose in his life, is a helpless victim of | | | | produced a convincing account of how society |
| such stories.In a later scene Tom spends the | | | | engenders its own crime, and creates its own |
| night with a girl he meets in a bar. The | | | | criminals.Read the full version of this essay |
| camera is positioned so that, on the right of | | | | at: Mackean runs the sites which features a |
| the screen, we see the couple's legs through | | | | substantial collection of English Literature |
| an open door, while on the left of the screen | | | | Resources and Essays, (and where his site on |
| we see a TV showing a game show. The scene | | | | Short Story Writing can also be found), and |
| is in black and white, except, strangely, for | | | | He is the editor of The Essentials of |
| the TV screen, which is in colour. Because | | | | Literature in English post-1914, published by |
| of this the distribution of values within the | | | | Hodder Arnold in 2005. |
| frame is curiously and disturbingly balanced, | | | | |