When I saw the new movie Promised Land I didn’t think it was worth writing about. It was a bit boring, but utterly forgettable, not worth a second thought. But when I saw an advertisement declaring Promised Land to be one of 2012’s best movies I had to speak out. For if this movie does somehow become widely seen it carries a dangerous message that I would like to fight against.
In Promised Land Matt Damon and Frances McDormand portray agents for a natural gas conglomerate. They cruise around a rural town trying to lease the land from its impoverished citizens to dig for natural gas. An elderly science teacher leads a movement against natural gas because their method of extraction called fracking can contaminate the water supply. Next an environmental activist comes into town rabble rousing, further uniting the community against natural gas, but even worse this environmental activist beds the barfly that Matt Damon had eyes for.
At this point the movie is a bit slow, but a pleasant character study. It is ridiculous that Matt Damon’s opponents respect him so much without him doing anything to earn their respect beyond the fact that he is Matt Damon. I was willing to look beyond the lazy storytelling as I was getting a free science lesson, but then comes the shockingly stupid twist that I am about to divulge.
After Matt Damon exposes the environmental activist to the townspeople to be a fraud, we learn the environmental activist was an even bigger fraud. Turns out he was a plant hired by the conglomerate to break the townspeople’s hearts so that they would vote to allow fracking in their town. The moral was intended to be that corporations are heartless Machiavellians, but we’re also left thinking environmentalists are posers and hypocrites, leaving us with nothing to believe in.
This wasn’t the filmmakers intention. They wanted this to be a Mr. Smith Goes To Washington where Matt Damon opens his eyes to integrity and relearns how to be the good person he always was, but the story did not allow him to earn it. Sure he tells the townspeople that the environmental activist was an employee of his natural gas company, but it was not out of any deep rooted conviction, it was so he could get in the pants of the woman the environmental activist already deflowered.
No other director is as hit or miss as Promise Land’s Gus Van Sant. Drugstore Cowboy is a masterpiece. More recently he made two great underseen movies in Elephant and Paranoid Park. But he also directed an awful bore in Gerry and perhaps the worst movie I have ever seen in Last Days. As meandering and meaningless as Last Days was I prefer the two hours of nonsense that movie was over the incompetent propaganda of Promised Land.
Starring Pablo Chiste 
It’s funny that your post today was about fracking, as last night I was kept awake by a documentary about this very issue. I’m sure the documentary was more interesting than this movie starring Matt Damon. Hollywood likes to dramatically exploit issues in the real world by sticking a big name actor on it and having them pretend to be heroes or villians, or complete morons. I think it is funny how so many idealize actors and actresses in Hollywood, when they spend much of their lives pretending to be things that they aren’t or real people that they will never be. But even then, they mess up a potentially interesting story like this fracking issue with Natural Gas drilling by putting stupid, nonsensical garbage in the storyline. Why does it matter if Matt Demon has a love interest or not. It’s not like he’ll whisk her away from an exploding Volcano, Earthquake, nuclear blast, large gorilla, dolphins, a horde of zombies, or swamp people in Georgia. I’m sure there is a minimum safe distance from a Natural Gas well that would not put people in harms way or a love interest that obvious is very loose from your description. If she’s willing to do it with the EPA and Gas people, she’s pretty much willing to do it with anyone, including Pablo Chiste.
On a different note, you need to be thankful I did not start Larry Fitzgerald or you would once again be watching me play for the title this weekend. Great game though.
I just learned this movie was funded by the state media company of the United Arab Emirates, a country whose entire wealth is dependent on oil. This is a more interesting twist than anything the hackneyed script of Promised Land provided. This makes the movie not just lazy and nihilistic, but also sinister.
And yes, Jason I got lucky in our fantasy football game. But as an old poker champ told me, better to be lucky than good.
Wish you had a “Like” button. Lol. We’re fighting the hysterical Antis in their cardboard fry suits here in New Brunswick Canada. I wish Damon would come here and bed some of them. Might shut them up!
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