House of America

I was very impressed by this movie. Although a lot of what happens is unpleasant for the characters, I found it strangely uplifting. According to the introduction at the Sydney film festival the writer was trying to make a cry for help about people in Wales taking on others culture and it destroying them. I don't think the movie achieved this, instead becoming an interesting psychological story of one family, done in a fast paced, exciting way. I wish I could get it on video in Australia.

I used to work in the coal industry and know Banwen and the area well.

When the film makers scouted the location for the film they planned on using the local Banwen opencast coal site after visiting it, so they were a bit disconcerted to return prior to production to see that the site had finished mining and was being filled in! Fortunately they were able to use another site nearby.

I spent the best part of 4 years driving around South Wales in a blue landrover, so I was delighted to see it prominently featured in a scene in the mine. (yes I know I'm very sad and should get out more,lol).

I watched this film out of curiosity but did enjoy it although it is bleak. If I had to be critical it doesn't convey the humour and togetherness prevalent in the type of community it portrays, but I don't think that was the intention. Not a film that demands regular viewing, but it has solid acting.

The squalid life of a dysfunctional family, minus a father who ran away, it is believed, to America, who can only cope with the reality of the depressing gloom of a Welsh mining district by escaping from it by immersing themselves in what they think is American culture. This seems to consist of worshiping icons such as literary giant Jack Kerouak, film stars such as Gary Cooper and various myths that centre round Detriot, "the wild west," and other notions conceived and believed by many non-Americans and too many more Americans. As their obsession for things American grows it does reach a point where reality can no longer be blocked. The high quality of acting portraying the grey lives of the people set where the grey landscape meets the grey skies is first rate. Watch it and appreciate seeing and feeling the sunshine, again.

My wife writes: The Cable guide classified this film as a comedy. However,I did not find it amusing. In fact, I thought it was rather depressing, but well acted, particularly the part of Sid, played by Steven MacKintosh. I went to bed feeling grateful that I was not poor and Welsh. To get the credit that this film deserves, it should viewed again by the classifier and shown at a more reasonable hour and, in time, I think that, like "Withnail and I", this film could be a classic.

Set in a mining town in the South Wales valleys, House of American tracks the lives of four people - Sid, Gwenny, Boyo and their mother.

Sadly, as with most small, indie films, this one didn't make it at the box office. And, like alot of other indie films, it deserved to. As a psychological study it is excellent - exploring repression and the power of memory, as well as the lengths a truly psychotic person will go to in order to bury the past.

But the real strength of this film was that it was frighteningly realistic. Granted, not many Welsh miners go insane, but they did encounter the poverty and "American dream" syndrome that gives this film its name.