Review of Lightning Over Water (1980) by Todd J — 05 Jun 2007

Nick's Movie or Lightning Over Water: It seems completely odd to me that this is considered a documentary by so many. Hell, even otherwise cynical bastards call this a docudrama. Can none of you dumbasses see that there's absolutely positively nothing in this film that could ever ever in any planet in any solar system be considered even remotely documentary-like? Seriously, no one seems to really get what Wenders tries to get at here.

He stages just as many moments designed to make you say, "Screw this noise, it ain't a documentary" as he does in a documentary style. He uses this staged documentary style in order to question the ethics and authenticity of cinema.

The remarkable thing is that Wenders poses the questions to himself! For those unfamiliar with the film, the story follows Wenders supposedly documenting a trip to New York to pay a last visit to his dying friend, Nicolas Ray.

The movie is told like a documentary with Wenders placing a voiceover documenting the narrative over varying sections of 16 and 8mm film and video camcorder footage. However, although the style seems to present a true image, Wenders goes out of his way time and time again to point out that the scenes in the film are a result of a process, even going so far as to ask Ray to read a line back to him.

Like most other presumptions you get from the film, your assumed trust of the story ends up being decapitated by Wenders who teaches you a lesson while simultaneously mocking your lame intuitions. The film's ethical discussion makes this often disorienting and somewhat unorganized style worth enduring.

In one scene, while Wenders and Ray talk in a hospital, Wenders tells Ray that if he starts to find himself aroused by Ray's visible terminal state, he'll have to stop the filming. By stating this, Wenders deflects a lot of criticism (which usually still bombards serious discussions of the film).

But despite all of this outlandish direction by Wenders, it's credited as being directed by Wim Wenders AND Nicolas Ray. The film's general plot has a large portion dedicated to Ray's tragically deluded notions about directing one last film before dying.

Something tells me that Wenders' travelogue exists more because of Ray's desire than anything, his hope to reestablish himself as a viable artist being a driving force more important and ultimately, more touching and successful, than the promise of a voyeuristic fulfillment.

And by granting a classic director's last wish, this film deserves much more depth and appreciation in its criticism than it usually receives with the Oedipal studies and the articles calling this experiment "cinematic snuff.

" But after all, Wenders gets the last laugh, managing to fool his critics by placing seeming manipulation in the most critical parts of normal films (see the ending, you'll get it). **** out've *****.