This is the way the world ends.
On July 4th, 2005, in a fictionalized United States alternate history reality, two towns in Texas (El Paso and Abilene) were destroyed by twin nuclear attacks that triggered a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions, sending America into a state of anarchy and hysteria, as well as a Third World War (a fictionalized version of what the nation may have become under the War on Terror).
The PATRIOT Act has extended authority to a new agency known as US-IDent, which keeps constant surveillance on citizens—even to the extent of censoring the Internet and requiring fingerprints to access computers and bank accounts. In response to the recent fuel shortage in the wake of global warfare, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy, which is propelled by the perpetual motion of ocean currents, called “Fluid Karma”. However, its inventor Baron von Westphalen and his associates are hiding the fact that the generators alter the ocean’s currents and cause the Earth to slow its rotation, and that the transmission of Fluid Karma to portable receivers (via quantum entanglement) is ripping holes in the fabric of space and time.
Southland Tales is a science fiction, comedy-drama and thriller film and the second film written and directed by Richard Kelly. The title refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California and Greater Los Angeles. Set in the then near future of an alternate history, the film is a portrait of Los Angeles, and a satiric commentary on the military–industrial complex and the infotainment industry. The film features an ensemble cast including Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, and Justin Timberlake. Original music for the film was provided by Moby. The film is an international co-production of the United States and Germany.
The film premiered May 21, 2006 at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a largely negative reception. After significant edits, the final version premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 22, 2007. It opened in limited release in California on November 14, 2007 and in Canada as well as nationwide in United States, in just 63 theaters, on November 16, 2007. The film opened in the United Kingdom on December 7, 2007.
About the Production
Richard Kelly wrote Southland Tales shortly before the September 11 attacks. The original script involved blackmail, a porn star, and two cops. After the attacks, Kelly revised the script. He said, “[The original script] was more about making fun of Hollywood. But now it’s about, I hope, creating a piece of science fiction that’s about a really important problem we’re facing, about civil liberties and homeland security and needing to sustain both those things and balance them.”
He described the film as a “tapestry of ideas all related to some of the biggest issues that I think we’re facing right now… alternative fuel or the increasing obsession with celebrity and how celebrity now intertwines with politics”.[16] With the film’s premise of a nuclear attack on Texas, Kelly wanted to take a look at how the United States would respond and survive while constructing a “great black comedy.”
Kelly said: “[Southland Tales] will only be a musical in a post-modern sense of the word in that it is a hybrid of several genres. There will be some dancing and singing, but it will be incorporated into the story in very logical scenarios as well as fantasy dream environments.” Kelly said the film’s biggest influences are Kiss Me Deadly, Pulp Fiction, Brazil, and Dr. Strangelove. He called it a “strange hybrid of the sensibilities of Andy Warhol and Philip K. Dick”.
The film often references religious and literary works; a policeman says, “Flow my tears,” in reference to a Philip K. Dick novel of that name. (“Taverner” is the name of the main character in the same book and suffers identity problems of his own.) Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) quotes Biblical scripture from the Book of Revelation in narrating the film and allusion is made both to Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and an altered version of T. S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men.
Southland Tales ‘2007)
Directed by: Richard Kelly
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Jill Ritchie, Miranda Richardson, John Larroquette
Screenplay by: Richard Kelly
Production Design by; Alec Hammond
Cinematography by: Steven Poster
Film Editing by: Sam Bauer
Costume Design by: April Ferry
Set Decoration by: Tracey A. Doyle
Music by: Moby
MPAA Rating: R for language, violence, sexual material and some drug content.
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release Date: November 14, 2007
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