Review By Bridget Spinks
Get Low starring Bill Murray (Ghostbusters, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), Robert Duvall (The Godfather, The Apostle) and Sissy Spacek (Coal Miner’s Daughter) is a movie explicitly about forgiveness and our natural human need for pardon.
The film is based on the true story and folk legend of Tennessee recluse Felix “Bush” Breazeale who, curious to know what people would say about him when he was gone, planned his own funeral while he was still alive in 1938.
Felix sold lottery tickets for his party and offered his land as the prize.
For 40 years he hid himself away in a beautifully crafted hut in the middle of the woods with only a mule for company.
But when it was time to ‘get low’, aware that rumours had been flying around town on ‘the Devil’s radio’ ever since he’d been out of town, he invited everyone who “has a story” about him to come to the party and tell it.
It’s said that his funeral party drew as many as 8-12,000 mourners from at least 14 different states as well as a Life Magazine photographer and major newspaper reporters.
Felix even hires a bluegrass soul band for entertainment. The Bluegrass band the Steeldrivers own the stage at his on-screen funeral (Bill Murray joined them on mandolin in between takes) while the Friendly Eight Octet of Chattanooga played in 1938.
Despite his outward appearances – shaggy white beard and an out-of-date horse and buggy – Felix is sharp when he wants to be, a master carpenter and ultimately courageous in the face of death.
While this movie is not about the Catholic sacrament of confession – the concrete means and recourse we have to grace – it is a movie that shows what freedom and peace comes from seeking forgiveness, living in truth and the ability to start again that confession gives.
Catholic church teaching is that it’s not just important to live in the state of grace, it’s important to die in the state of grace.
Here’s a movie that fleshes out one man’s approach to preparing for death that practically lines up with our approach – set right any wrongs and confess your sins.
This man’s sin and the consequence of his sin that involved others has been on his mind ever since.
The irony is that you walk out of the cinema wondering why he spent 40 years with that on his conscience.
But who hasn’t catastrophised a sin (big or little, mortal or venial) and delayed a confession?
When he actually does confess, his contrition is sincere and all you want to do is hug him and say ‘don’t worry’ and ‘forget about it’.
If we read between the lines, this movie is also about how painful life can be without confession and forgiveness, without letting the truth be known.
Having said that, there aren’t any parallel past and present narratives happening, because this movie isn’t about the process of living in pain, it’s about Felix reconciling with his past in order to prepare for his death (and future in the next life).
Get Low, as in a euphemism for six feet under, with its simple plot has a refreshingly Christian theme for the worldly box office where Felix sets foot in not just one, but two churches.
Although the yarn is the stuff of folk legend – shot in Georgia, in lush country America on sites that haven’t changed much since the Great Depression – its themes are timeless.
The characters too, wrestle with their conscience on whether they should help someone host his own funeral party and Frank Quinn, the undertaker, when faced with an opportunity to steal a heck of a lot of money is asked if he can be trusted.
This is director Aaron Schneider’s first feature film, which was picked up by Sony Pictures after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009.
Get Low is released through independent cinemas (Luna, Palace) coming out on 26 May.