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DIGGERS

What You Need To Know:

DIGGERS is about a group of young clam diggers in Long Island in 1976 who are being squeezed out of their livelihood by a large corporation. Hunt is a young man with a restless, imaginative side exemplified by the photos he takes. Hunt's buddies and fellow diggers include Frankie, a Roman Catholic struggling to support five kids and his spunky wife, Julie. The death of Hunt's father leads them to look at their lives, as it does Hunt's divorced sister, Gina. Frankie considers working for the big corporation. Hunt falls for a young woman visiting from Manhattan, who wonders why Hunt's artistic impulses don't encourage him to try his luck in the big city.

DIGGERS is a poignant character drama with genuinely funny moments. The stories of Hunt, Gina and Frankie's family, including Frankie's pro-life, pro-family views, are compelling. So are the performances. What is not compelling is the movie's foul language, drug references making light of drug use and sexual content. This unacceptable combination of immoral content and the movie's small release ensure its demise at the box office, even though DIGGERS is one of the better-made independent movies.

Content:

(RoRo, Pa, C, B, FR, ACap, LLL, V, SS, NN, A, DDD, M) Strong Romantic worldview with pagan content about following your dreams and getting away from a declining society, mitigated by positive references to one married character's Roman Catholic faith, which make him pro-life and pro-family, but slightly antinomian otherwise, plus some anti-capitalism; 96 obscenities (many “f” words), six strong profanities and four light profanities; men exit bar and fight, man dies of natural causes, and man trashes office when company treats him badly; one scene of depicted fornication and implied fornication; brief partial sexual nudity; alcohol use and drunkenness; movie makes light of drug use, including marijuana and marijuana sales; and, vandalism.

More Detail:

DIGGERS is an independent drama about a group of young clam diggers in Long Island in the Fall of 1976 who are being squeezed out of their livelihood by a large corporation. Paul Rudd plays Hunt, a young man with a restless, imaginative side exemplified by the black and white photos he takes. Hunt’s buddies and fellow diggers include Frankie, a Roman Catholic who is struggling to support five children and his spunky wife, Julie. The sudden death of Hunt’s father leads them to look at their lives, as it does Hunt’s divorced sister, Gina, who was taking care of their father.

As Frankie considers working for the big corporation, Hunt falls for a young woman, Zoe, visiting from Manhattan. Zoe wonders why Hunt’s artistic impulses don’t force him to try his luck in the big city.

DIGGERS is a poignant character-driven drama with some genuinely funny moments. The stories of Hunt, Gina and Frankie’s family, including Frankie’s pro-life, pro-family views, are compelling. So are the performances. What is not compelling is the movie’s foul language, some drug references that make light of drug use and the movie’s brief sexual content. This unacceptable combination of immoral content and the movie’s very small release ensure its demise at the box office, even though DIGGERS is one of the better-made and captivating independent movies to come out in 2007. The screenplay is actually written by Ken Marino, who plays the pro-life Catholic family man. More writers in Hollywood should be willing to put a positive pro-life message into their movies like Mr. Marino.