Based on the novel ‘Foregone’ by Russell Banks
Story
Leonard Fife, one of the 60,000 draft dodgers and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid service in Vietnam, shares all his secrets to demystify his mythologized life. This is the second time Paul Schrader has directed one of Banks’ novels for the screen, following his adaptation Affliction (1997).
Well you’d be wrong
Referenced on the Movie Trash Podcast: Episode 961: In a Violent Nature + TIFF 2024 (2024). With a stellar cast of actors like Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, and Michael Imperio, you’d think you’d have the star power to create a better film than this.
Paul Schrader goes ‘experimental’; in a film that looks like something a first-year film student would do
Schrader claims to have been friends with the war protester/filmmaker whose life story this film is based on, but who needs friends like that? Richard Gere’s character becomes increasingly unpleasant and gradually loses the ability to express himself in words as he rages at everyone around him, muttering as he descends into darkness.
In other words, he becomes like Paul Schrader today
Do yourself a favor and skip this, even if it’s streaming, I can’t imagine it would be better if you could pause it and leave the room to do more important things than watch this sad excuse for a movie.
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