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DON’T COME KNOCKING

"A Cowboy Movie from Broken-Home Mountain"

What You Need To Know:

DON’T COME KNOCKING stars Sam Shepard as Howard Spence, an old, washed-out western “cowboy” actor who uses drugs, alcohol and young girls to fill the void in his life. Howard learns he has two illegitimate children in Montana, so he runs away from a movie set to find a glimmer of hope by regaining the life he could have had. Close behind him is a private detective hired by the studio to bring Howard back. Howard begins to make inroads with his abandoned children when his celebrity life pulls him away again.

Even though the movie runs under two hours, it crawls. The acting is rough, the script is labored, and the movie is forgettable. Couple all that with plenty of strong foul language, miscellaneous immorality, gambling, alcoholism, and a humanist worldview, and the audience has a movie that is just not good. Now, discerning moral viewers could easily see that the wages of this man’s sin is death and that the sins of the father are visited on the children. Like another “cowboy” movie recently, however, they probably will want to avoid this piece of trash from Broken-Home Mountain

Content:

(HHH, ABABAB, C, LLL, V, S, N, AAA, DD, MMM) Very strong humanist, anti-biblical worldview with immoral characters who are driven by their broken souls to make life decisions, as well as light Christian elements can be seen by discerning viewers that shows the fruitlessness and emptiness of immoral decisions and God-less lifestyles; 24 obscenities (17 of which are "f" words) and three profanities; mild violence includes boyfriend pushing his girlfriend out of his way two or three times and father and son pushing and slapping at each other, as well as son going on a rage and throwing all of his furniture out of his apartment into the middle of the street; one scene of implied fornication showing unmarried couple in bed together the morning after; naturalistic upper male nudity and unmarried couple in bed is briefly shown in their underwear, as well as female cleavage and clothed backside shots; strong alcohol and drug use includes a movie star’s trailer filled with empty bottles, drunkenness depicted, man is arrested for public drunkenness, several scenes of people drinking at various bars, etc; cigarette and cigar smoking implied and depicted, and movie star’s trailer filled with various drug paraphernalia; and, miscellaneous immorality includes actor fleeing the set and skipping out on his contractual obligation, man steals a horse, lying, and depicted gambling in casinos.

More Detail:

DON’T COME KNOCKING stars Sam Shepard as Howard Spence, a sixty-year-old, washed-out western movie “cowboy” actor who uses drugs, alcohol and young girls to fill the void in his life. When news comes that he may have a long-lost child somewhere, Howard’s life gains a glimmer of hope as he tries to regain the life he could have had.

On the set of another western, the crew searches frantically. “Where is Howard? Where is Howard?” They are ready to shoot his big scene. Where could this iconic film actor have gone? Howard has fled. Stealing the studio’s horse, he gallops away from the movie and his life.

He heads home to see his estranged mother. She tells him that somewhere in Montana he has an estranged son. Howard, realizing that this lost child could be a ray of hope in his bleak and meaningless existence, heads off to Butte, Montana in search of the life he never had. Close behind him, though, is Sutter (Tim Roth), a private detective hired by the studio to bring Howard back to the movie set.

Howard’s arrival in Butte is not as well received as he would have hoped. The woman with whom he had an affair, Doreen (Jessica Lange), refuses to feel sorry for him, and the illegitimate son he sired, Earl (Gabriel Mann), refuses to accept him as a father. Howard’s meeting with Earl is violent and unsettling. Just when he is about to give up completely, he meets a young woman named Sky (Sarah Polley). She is, in fact, also Howard’s child, the product of another short fling that happened when he was in Butte years ago.

Soon, Sutter arrives to return Howard to the movie set. He has just started to make inroads with his two illegitimate children when his life pulls him away once again, and, it leaves his two children standing together and once again asking, “Where is Howard? Where is Howard?”

Even though the movie runs under two hours, it crawls. It feels as long as an epic, of course, without the epic sense of story, grandeur, or enjoyment. The acting is rough. The script is labored. The movie is forgettable. All in all, the movie feels like an amateur piece from a first-year film student. Couple that with some strong instances of foul language and miscellaneous immorality such as gambling, drinking and drugs, and this is a movie that is just not good.

Now, discerning moral viewers should easily see that this movie is a perfect example of what happens when a man sows his wild oats and reaps the broken dreams of his sinful ways. Discerning moral viewers could easily see that the wages of this man’s sin is death and that the sins of the father are visited on the children. Of course, discerning moral viewers probably will not be interested in this boring piece. Like other “cowboy” movies this past year, discerning moral viewers should all together avoid this piece of trash from Broken-Home Mountain.