Baseball, Barbara Hershey, Apple Pie, and David Carradine

David Carradine’s 1973-1981 film, “Americana” takes it’s time to tell it’s story. What? 1973-1981 film? What does that mean, sir? According to information on the webbernet, David Carradine (“Kung Fu,” “Kill Bill”) worked on this film for eight years, beginning in 1973 and completing it in 1981. The copyright year given at the end of the film is 1981.

Carradine stars in this film which he directed. He plays a character with no name, known simply as “The American Soldier” in the closing credits. He arrives in a small town in Kansas dressed in his military uniform. The year in which the action takes place is 1973. We assume he was in the Air Force, serving in Vietnam, as his uniform has a patch on it that says “Airborne.” We do not know anything else about this character. Here lies the wonderful simplicity of the film. The soldier asks the residents of the town if they have any odd jobs for him so he can earn some money. He is given a job cutting weeds in a field in which an old, dilapidated merry-go-round sits. The soldier decides to fix the merry-go-round. Why does he want to fix the old merry-go-round? In a film like this, such reasons are never stated. It is up to the audience to try to figure out the motivations of such a character. Perhaps he wants a challenge or perhaps he wants something to occupy his mind so he does not think about the horrible war from which he has returned. Whatever the case may be, and it may indeed be more profound than I am implying, the film tells it’s story very well and avoids all the tropes of a “long-haired guy returning home and trying to find work in a small town” story. Every time you think an older character is going to start hassling the soldier, he or she does not. The people in the town are helpful, though, the performances do portray an amount of suspicion and underlying distrust of the soldier. Their distrust is not evident in the forefront of their minds,however. A scene involving a policeman and the soldier seems to be moving towards an uncomfortable confrontation in which the policeman becomes a complete asshole, however, this scene successfully avoids such conventions as well. A scene in which a young Barbara Hershey seems to be a likely target for two young attackers does not proceed the way one might think. Hershey plays a character known as “Jess’s daughter.” Her character is a young woman who watches with interest as the soldier fixes up the merry-go-round. She brings him lunch and tools. The American soldier is given a job at the local station. The station is run by Mike (Michael Greene). The soldier and Mike get along very well until the soldier learns something about the town that disturbs him greatly. The soldier’s outward disdain for this fact angers Mike and turns the soldier into a target for the local hooligans and this precipitates the dramatic tension of the film, which occurs at about the 60 minute mark. I am being purposefully nebulous in my description so that, should anyone seek out this film, they will not be the victim of a spoiler attack.

“Americana” is about the soldier’s determination to complete a project he started. He wants to fix something that is broken regardless of the ugliness he sees around him. Every moment of this film is fantastic. I wish it was a more famous film and that it would be mentioned amongst other great films of the 1970’s, especially those films which reflect young filmmakers’ disdain for war and the effects of war on the psyche of society. “Americana” is a profound film in a simple film’s body.