American Pastoral John Jost's film "Sighting Fire" from the middle period of his work is one of the few that had a rental and was not overlooked by professionals (claimed for the Grand Prix of the Independent Film Festival in Sundance).
A decent budget for this kind of cinema allowed to stock up on better quality film and assemble a real film crew, although Jost himself was not only a director-writer, but also an editorial operator. Such sole control not only over the creative, but also over the technical part allowed the director to experiment with the form.
Of course, Jost’s beloved polyscreen, as well as multiple exposures, were not forgotten. In a number of scenes, Jost achieves the effect of the presence of the viewer, shooting, for example, the opening scene in a store where two characters discuss the city news, statically, from the upper corner, as if imitating a store camera. He did not change Jost and a small town, as a result of which you will find another poetic recognition of the director in his love for one-story America, which he knows very well, quite wandering in his youth.
The main character Wes is a real estate agent. In addition to his irrepressible desire for wealth, he also loves hunting and seeks to accustom his son to it, to whom he even bought a gun. And this gun, in accordance with the poetics of the Chekhov theater, will certainly shoot in the final. The director draws convincing pictures of Wes’ alienation from his family, friends. The pursuit of wealth destroys his family and the lives of those around him, but Wes himself does not even notice it. He is convinced that all is well, and the inexorable rock brings him closer to an disappointing end.
Jost metaphorically juxtaposes hunting animals in the local forest and hunting customers. Wes, like Ray, the hero of Jost’s upcoming film The Bed You Sleep In, also destroys nature, striving to build as many houses as possible, and devoting all his leisure time to shooting animals. Moreover, he teaches his son to knock immediately on the stock so that the animal does not suffer, or finish off if he could not kill the first time. The very action Jost innovatively frames the biblical text that appears against the background of beautiful landscapes, as if borrowing the techniques of video art. The eschatological motives of the moral impasse of mankind, sowing death to the surrounding world, are supplemented by the usual elegiac mood. Jost does not judge, but rather grieves, that people can not understand that the main thing in life is not money. Love for loved ones and nature should be manifested in a reverent attitude, because feelings are so easy to destroy, and the beauty of forests, fields and rivers is so easy to destroy, turning into a dead urban landscape.
Jost's pastoral tastes may not seem preferable to everyone, but the director is far from any assessment. He simply says that a person should not destroy the common human home, chasing short-term gain, submitting to the bad influence of mass culture, every day producing another success story.
John Jost's film is calm, meditative, like all his other works. This is truly a rest from the noisy and empty mass films, where there is nothing more than a beautiful wrapper. And sometimes there is a feeling that the director knows more than he says, as if pushing the viewer to independent reflections on the existential topics that this worthy film touches.
7.5 out of 10