California

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Movie
German title California
Original title California
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1993
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Dominic Sena
script Stephen Levy ,
Tim Metcalfe
production Steve Golin ,
Aristides McGarry ,
Sigurjon Sighvatsson
music Carter Burwell
camera Bojan Bazelli
cut Martin Hunter
occupation

Kalifornia is a 1993 road movie directed by Dominic Sena .

Journalist Brian Kessler ( David Duchovny ) and his partner, photographer Carrie ( Michelle Forbes ), are working on a book about the biggest serial murders in America. For their research, they travel across the United States to the places where the killers were up to mischief. Your final destination is California. In order to be able to finance the trip, the two take the run-down Early Grayce ( Brad Pitt ) and his girlfriend Adele ( Juliette Lewis ) with them, without realizing that he is a murderer.

action

Journalist Brian wrote an article about serial killers in the United States, which earned him an order and an advance payment for a book on the subject. But the advance is used up quickly and not a single line has been written from the book. Brian decides to get his work going by visiting serial homicide sites to get a better picture of what happened. His girlfriend Carrie is supposed to travel with him and shoot the photos for the book. At the end of the trip, they both want to settle in California, which Carrie has long cherished.

To finance the company, Brian is looking for passengers to contribute to the fuel costs. A couple answers, Early Grayce and Adele Corners. At this point, the viewer learns of two murders that Early committed and that he has a criminal record. Brian and Carrie have no idea who is getting in their car.

On the first day of the trip, Early makes a rude impression and Adele stands out with her childlike naivete, so that Carrie is already critical of the two being taken along. Early you can clearly see the interest in Brian's girlfriend. At the next refueling stop it is Early's turn to pay. He gets the money by attacking a customer of the gas station in the toilet and brutally killing him. When Brian also wants to enter the toilet, Early succeeds in preventing him and thus hiding his act for the time being.

At the end of the day, Brian and Early go on a pub crawl while Carrie and Adele spend the evening at the motel. Another guest provokes Brian while playing billiards. Early intervenes and brutally beats the man up. Meanwhile, Carrie learns from Adele that Early has already been in prison for possession of guns and resisting arrest and that Early sometimes beats her, but, as Adele says, "only when she deserves it". Adele stays with Early anyway because she was a victim of violence in her youth and believes that this will not happen again with Early at her side. Brian comes back to the motel that evening very drunk, where Carrie is already waiting for him and confronts him about Early's past.

The next day, the situation worsens when Carrie discovers a weapon at Early's. She tells Brian, but Brian is more fascinated than shocked and does target practice on window panes with Early on an abandoned industrial site. After Brian and Carrie document the next murder scene and return to the car, Carrie watches Early having sex with Adele in the back seat of the car. However, Early notices her and is visibly excited by it. This is too much for Carrie: she gives Brian a choice - either Early gets out or she.

At the next refueling stop, Early learns that he is no longer allowed to ride. When he also realizes that there is a manhunt on television that Carrie doesn't miss, he freaks out. He kills the gas station attendant in front of Carrie and forces the group to drive on. Early decides to stop at the next murder scene as planned and visit it with Brian. Brian tries to talk to Early and learn why he's doing all of this, but he has no more success than Carrie, who tries to get Adele, who is turning a blind eye to what is happening, to help them.

When two policemen approach the two women waiting at the car, Early shoots both of them down and kills the injured. Now even Adele can no longer fool herself. Early is completely out of control. He ambushes an elderly couple in their home and kills the man. Now Adele turns against him. She helps the old woman to escape and tells Early that she is leaving him because he is so "mean" and hurts other people. Early kills Adele and then wants to shoot Brian too, but Carrie prevents this by promising Early to do whatever he wants. Early knocks Brian out and escapes with Carrie.

Brian regains consciousness the next morning. The old woman has returned to her house and helps Brian free himself from the piano he is chained to. She then rushes to the nearest phone 21 miles away to call the police because Early has destroyed the phone in the house. Brian is following Early. He had Carrie Adele's clothes dressed and stayed with her in an empty house on a nuclear test site, where he raped her. Brian, who has penetrated the house, is knocked down by Early before Carrie intervenes and Brian can strike Early with his pistol. While the police are approaching in the background, Brian shoots Early with another shot.

Brian's work on the book is going well in her new home on the California beach, and Carrie has found a gallery to exhibit her pictures. While the two are going to a restaurant to celebrate the day, one hears Adele's voice from Brian's dictation machine, who was still talking on the recorder while she was on the road and thanks her new friends for taking them along and for the great time.

Reviews

"A road movie filmed with the aesthetics of commercials and video clips, which is less interested in the ambiguous characters of its characters than in excessively played out brutalities."

- Lexicon of international film

“Dominic Sena created a shockingly brutal odyssey, evil, cynical and artfully illustrated. Brad Pitt achieved a successful image change as a brutal. Juliette Lewis is also outstanding as his naive, debilitating flame. Conclusion: A nightmare on wheels: crazy! "

- Cinema

useful information

  • For all four main actors, California was an important step on the career ladder.
  • The serial murder locations visited in the film have references to the names of the leading actors: Lewis ton Ranch, Mount Juliet (te), Texas (Juliette Lewis), Forbes , Tennessee (Michelle Forbes), David son Mine, Dew Cove (ny), Nevada (David Duchovny) and Brad bury Textile Warehouse in Pitt sburgh, Pennsylvania (Brad Pitt).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for California . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2010 (PDF; test number: 70 456-b V).
  2. ↑ Cinema.de: film review