52 Films by Women Vol 3. 34. LEAVE NO TRACE (Director: Debra Granik)
For many cinemagoers, the defining portrayal of post-traumatic
stress disorder experienced by a veteran of military combat features in First
Blood, a 1982 film starring Sylvester Stallone that introduced us to
John Rambo. In a movie franchise of dubious quality, Rambo subsequently fought
the wars that America never got right: Vietnam, Afghanistan and Burma. We
rejoiced in the comic book violence that resulted as Stallone’s ridiculously
pumped body participated in a series of over-the-top action sequences. It was
no surprise that Stallone himself was prompted to write a screenplay, fittingly
entitled Over the Top - this also referred to his salary.
Post traumatic stress disorder is very real and very
serious. In the United States, the Veterans Association and the US Department
of Veteran Affairs struggle to administer to the needs of thousands of combat
veterans and their families as former soldiers, marines and air force personnel
transition to civilian life. The Veterans ‘market’ is fragmented with
organisations like Vietnam Veterans of America and Native American Veterans
Association. It is clear that no one organisation helps all; that adjustment to
normal life is seen not only through the prism of experience on the
battlefield, but also through one’s ethnic background and subsequent
disability, the latter as assisted by organisations like the Paralyzed Veterans
of America.
In popular cinema, veterans are seen as dormant volcanoes,
reverting to violent ways. They are vigilantes or psychopaths – sometimes both.
The story of the veteran who opts out, who makes peace with the world by living
in parallel to it, is rarely told, but is the subject of Leave No Trace, an
adaptation by director Debra Granik and co-writer Anne Rosellini of Peter
Rock’s novel ‘My Abandonment’,
published in 2009.
Granik’s second feature, the 2010 release Winter’s
Bone gave Jennifer Lawrence her first leading role as a teenager living
in abject poverty who is forced to find her missing father (John Hawkes) to
prevent her family from being evicted. Granik followed it with a documentary, Stray
Dog (2014) about a Vietnam War veteran, Ron Hall, who takes a trip to
meet his Mexican wife’s children. Leave No Trace typifies Granik’s
work: it is about an opter-out (rather than an outcast), who forges his own
way, asking little of others but in conflict with the world because he has a
teenage daughter for whom living in a national park is not her choice.
Granik – and the audience – sympathise utterly with Will
(Ben Foster) a bearded veteran of an unspecified conflict who has made a life
for himself and his teenage daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in a
national park in Portland, Oregon. They try as hard as possible to live on what
is around them, supplementing their diet when Will goes to town to collect his
veteran’s medication, which he then sells.
The first image of the film is very subtle but foreshadows
Granik’s approach: it is a close-up of mossy branches in a peace symbol. This
is the opposite of a war movie: no fighting, no violence of any kind. Will and
Tom forage but they don’t hunt.
In a series of short scenes notable for the love and
camaraderie that Will and Tom express towards each other, we see how they live,
collecting wood in the forest. Tom whittles a stick down so it is easier to
catch fire. They eat eggs and use the shell to adorn their garden. They fry
mushrooms and practice a drill, Tom hiding from Will.
‘You’re burned,’ he tells her. ‘Your socks burned you.’
Tom reads – Will hasn’t neglected her education. They are at
pains not to use the propane gas, which is of limited supply. They share a tent
and beat its edges to scare away dogs. They live undetected whilst a few
hundred metres away, workmen saw their way through the park. It is only when Tom is out one day that she
is spotted. A jogger calls to her. She does not respond.
From their point of view, Will and Tom’s existence is
natural. From an outside perspective, Tom is kept in the woods against her
will, denied the comforts of a real home and a proper education.
A search party discovers their camp; Will and Tom flee. Will
is caught, complying entirely with the request. Tom, who has learned to hide,
surrenders only when Will asks. ‘Comply,’ he says, ‘we’ve done nothing wrong.’
The pair is separated. Tom is kept in a room with two other
teenage girls who are preparing a dream chart. Tom knows nothing of the pop
stars and teen pin-ups pinned to cardboard. It is not her world.
Will is given a test, ostensibly to assess his mental state.
He struggles with the ‘true or false’ questions he is given, recited on a tape
– he cannot keep up. A man helps. The questions focus on how he feels about the
day and whether he believes in some form of apocalypse: they reflect some of
the out-there conspiracy theories that veterans adopt.
The pair is reunited. Tom confesses that she was seen but
didn’t think to mention it. Her voice is tinged with guilt. They are taken to a
home in the woods, a proper house with electricity, though Will has no interest
in television – he hides it in the cupboard.
Whilst Tom goes to school, Will goes to work, preparing
Christmas trees for export to Los Angeles, learning to clip their tops. They go
to church but Will doesn’t have much to say to the priest. Tom is shown how to
wave flags by a troupe of elderly women who perform for the congregation.
Tom makes friends with a boy and is shown rabbit club. The
first rule of rabbit club is: prepare your bunny; Fight Club references
have no place in the movie.
Will does not trust domesticity. He equates their life to
being under surveillance. We know he has nightmares – in an early scene, the
sound of helicopters alarms him. We also know he likes chocolate. In a store
during their trip to town, Tom asks ‘want or need’. ‘Want,’ replies Will
referring to a chocolate bar.
Will decides to leave and summons Tom to come with him. They
make their way in cold weather to a deserted cabin. They break in. Will goes out to forage – and doesn’t come
back.
In the second half of the film, Tom proves to be the
stronger of the two. They receive help from a group who live in mobile homes in
the forest and sing songs. Tom pays rent to the woman that assists them. She
wants to stay, to lay down roots. Will is restless.
Leave No Trace is both a coming-of-age film and a quiet drama
about the inability of veterans to settle. The stakes are not artificially
hyped, but the film deals with real trauma, real pain, not filtered through
media hyperbole. It is also a parallel kind of cinema that does not attempt to
emotionally manipulate the audience but instead shows us how people live in
order to show us how it is possible to life without society’s restrictions. The
central performances are naturalistic rather than making a claim for awards. If
the film helps one audience member to better understand the plight of veterans,
it has done its job.
Reviewed at Cineworld,
West India Quay, Tuesday 3 July 2018, 17:20 screening
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