Promised Land is a film directed by Matt Damon. The plot revolves around two men who discover oil in the American Midwest.
Matt Damon plays the role of Willy Loman, a struggling salesman who has lost his job and home. He tries to sell off his farm to pay back his debts, but he fails miserably.
His wife leaves him and takes their son with her. After failing at selling his farm, Willy decides to go to New York City to try his luck at finding another job.
The film was released on October 23, 2009. It received mixed reviews from critics. Most critics praised the acting performances of Matt Damon and Jason Clarke but criticized the screenplay.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Actor for Matt Damon, Best Supporting Actress for Frances McDormand, Best Original Screenplay for Charlie Kaufman, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin.
It won one award: Best Sound Editing.
What Is The Storyline To The Movie?
Matt Damon plays Mike Logan, a man who works for Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company based out of Oklahoma City.
He’s sent to meet with the owner of a farm called Promise Falls, played by Rosemarne DeWitt, whose husband died in a tractor accident.
The couple had been fighting over whether to sell their property to Chesapeake. When Logan arrives, he learns that the family wants to keep the farm because it’s been passed down through generations.
They’re concerned about the effects of fracking and want to know how much money Chesapeake might offer them.
The film takes place in Pennsylvania, where there are several towns that have banned fracking due to environmental concerns.
In one scene, we see a group of protesters outside a building that houses a natural gas pipeline. There’s also a brief shot of a well site.
Logan tries to convince the people that they’ll make a lot of money off of drilling, but his efforts aren’t successful. The family doesn’t budge.
“I’m sorry,” says Logan. “You don’t seem like you want to do anything.” “We just don’t think it’s worth it,” replies DeWitt’s character. “We’ve got our lives here.”
What You Need To Know As Parents
Research shows a connection between kids’ healthy self-esteem and seeing themselves reflected positively in the media.
And what better way to reflect yourself positively than by being represented accurately in the media you consume?
But it turns out there are still some big gaps in how diverse representation is portrayed across different genres and platforms. So we set out to find out whether we missed anything.
We found that while there are many great examples of diverse representation in film and TV, there are still plenty of opportunities to improve. For example:
- In terms of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion, nationality, class, and body type, men represent 48% of speaking characters overall, even though women make up 51% of the population.
- Only 12% of lead roles go to people of color, despite the fact that nearly half of American adults identify as belonging to one of those groups.
- Less than 20% of children and teens in films and TV shows are depicted as having disabilities, despite the fact that 25% of Americans do.
- Less than 10% of characters are LGBTQ+ or transgender, despite the fact that 16% of Americans identify as such.
Consider these factors when deciding if this film is the right film for your children to be viewing.
Is There Anything Else You Should Know About This Movie?
Damon filmed his scenes in Brooklyn and Manhattan, while Krasinski filmed his scenes in Los Angeles.
In January 2012, Damon stepped out as director due to scheduling issues, but he remained involved with the production.
He told Entertainment Weekly that he wanted to make sure that the story was accurate and that it wasn’t “just a bunch of people running around saying ‘I’m going to do this and then doing something else.”
He added, “the whole thing about the movie is that you’re seeing what happens when everyone gets together and says, ‘We’re going to build a city.’ And then they start building it, and it starts falling apart.”
Damon told Rolling Stone Magazine that he thought the film was a good fit for him because he could relate to the main character. He said, “There’s something very American about this story.
I think we all want to believe that there’s someplace where things work out better than here. We all want to believe that our little town, whatever it might be, is the promised land.”
Damon told Vanity Fair in 2011 that he hoped the movie would inspire audiences to become engaged politically. He said, “I hope that people walk away feeling like they’ve done something…
If you feel like you’ve done something, you’ll go home and talk about it. You’ll tell your friends. You’ll try to convince them. Maybe you won’t succeed, maybe you will.”
Final Thoughts
While there is room for improvement, there are still some positive steps forward. We hope this review will help parents decide if this movie is best suited for their families.
If you liked this article, you might enjoy our post on ‘After Earth Movie Review‘.
I’d like to think I know a lot about films - at least that’s what my peers tell me after I’m done boring them to tears with my knowledge surrounding any movie that comes into the conversation!
I think the people in my life are getting a little bored of my teachings, so now I bring them to you - to hopefully find people who will get as excited as I do when talking about films. Please enjoy my reviews and commentaries, and feel free to jump in at any point and discuss.
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