Scrapple

I saw Scrapple at the 1998 Breckenridge Film Fest. The description of the film read, "Pigs, drugs, and ski bums." I was intrigued, to say the least, by what would be my favorite film of the festival.

The opening credit scenes had me believing I was watching a movie that was filmed in the mid '70s. By the second scene I knew I was in for a great film. Having lived in ski towns for the past 10 years, I can safely say that Scapple does an outstanding job of relaying the universal, timeless truisms of ski town life.

Entertaining, funny, and cinematically beautiful, the film sends a small message that hits close to home. During the story we fall in love with Al Dean, the king of blind luck, in his efforts to make things right.

This is a film that was put together remarkably well, especially for a first time, independent project. After seeing a movie like Scrapple, one wonders how this film isn't being distributed on a national level, when so many undeserving movies are. I suppose blame lies in the unenlightened viewing public and not in the quality of the film, as Scrapple is the most underrated film I have yet to see.

Kudos to the Hanson brothers for their grassroots efforts to get this movie seen by appreciative moviegoers.

While Scrapple is set in the fictional ski town of Ajax, Colorado (well named as both Telluide and Aspen have an Ajax), Scrapple has almost no skiing in it. It is set in the summer time and captures the slow grooving life that existed in the '70s in ski towns. The script is quite brilliant as it moves from that slow groovy pace into a vey focused story for the second half of the film. The music is as good as you will ever get in a film. The scenery is gorgeous and the acting is just good enough to make it all work. The movie is aging beautifully as the 70s move farther away into the rearview mirror.

Absolutely unlike ANY film I've ever seen before! The music, scenery, story and characters leave you wishing you could return to this simpler, care-free time. If only places like "Ajax" (Telluride) still existed today with it's good friends, good tunes, and good times. I've watched this video over and over and still find myself singing along, reciting my favorite lines, and discovering more of it's charm each time. All I can say, is if you lived through the 60's and/or 70's, (regardless of how much you actually REMEMBER...) you've got to give this film a look. It's appeal is so unusual it's hard to quantify. The search for one's self, trust and love, a renegade but loveable pig, "temple balls", Taj Mahal's music, outstanding film backdrops, good friends, all combine for a very charming and creative film. Give it a try if you can track it down...it'll be more than worth the effort!

of all the times that i've watched scrapple (some 100) in all kinds of venues (at 3 in the morning on a couch with other bar stragglers, at new york film festivals), nothing compared to seeing it in its hometown at mountain film festival, with a hometown crowd as they whooped and yelped at all the local references, ski town tributes and cameo performances (all of which still has appeal to broader less tuned-in audiences). it was like a screening of rocky horror picture show with the same level of participation and more; singing, line-readings, cat calls, wolf whistles, salutes (to Charlie Fowler and Bill Fandel). ten years down the road -- and still going strong -- scrapple has endured as a classic, and judging from last week's screening, it continues to mark a time, not only in skitown history, but as a way of life still worth celebrating.

"Scrapple" is a very well done and beautifully shot indie about a small time pot dealer who finds himself in over his head while trying to finance a humble house in a small Colorado hippie town to provide a better life for himself and his brother, a Vietnam vet who lives in a veterans hospital. Set in 1978, the film provides a look into the lives of a group of transient friends who have found a home sharing each others company in the town of Ajax, population 620. Well developed characters and a steadily moving plot-line keep the story going forward. And an outstanding soundtrack that features the considerable talent of Taj Mahal, Bob Weir and Jorma Kaukonen, to name a few, adds strongly to the beautiful, melancholy vibe of the film. I dug this film. Kudos to the Hanson brothers and I hope to see more from them.