Monrovia, Indiana Review: Wiseman’s return with another series of small sequences, this time in Monrovia, Indiana is a fascinating insight into small-town America living.
In a career that has endured for over half a century and with more than 40 films documenting various aspects of contemporary life in the United States (Juvenile Court, Ex-Libris: The New York Public Library), legendary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman has never shot a film in the American mid-west. He corrects this omission with Monrovia, Indiana; a discrete, visual essay about the day-to-day experiences in a small-town farming community.
An example of what was once the backbone of American life, the town’s inhabitants read like a cliché of everything foreigners such as us imagine when we think about small-town America: insular, patriotically prideful and self-righteously Christian. This is MAGA country and the residents of Monrovia are exactly that; predominantly white, hard-working citizens with conservative Christian values and an aging population hesitant with the rate of change.
But Wiseman’s film isn’t political – not at all. Rather, Monrovia explores these stereotypes through montages of sublime rural imagery (silos, quaint farmhouses, fields, livestock) and observational snippets of conversations and events happening throughout the town. There is no need for commentary nor one-on-one interviews to fill in the story. Monrovians welcome us with the gentle sounds of their heartland – rustling crops, the hum of machinery, animals, and birdsong – and open arms and hearts; revealing a simple way of life driven by values, community spirit, authenticity, and God. Always God.
It’s a fascinating, coherent insight into a life most of us do not lead nor understand. Beginning with a montage of cinematographer John Davey’s gorgeous and idyllic shots of the mid-west, the filmmaker leads us into the community where bored students are told stories of ‘famous old-boy’ sportsmen (not women by the way) like John Wooden and Branch McCraken and told to be proud of their history as former winners of 12 National Championships and 3 college basketball Hall of Famers.
We then cut back into town where the residents are busy doing a myriad of things. They attend the barber shop and hairdressers, some residents have stopped into the Café on the Corner café for a coffee, a meal, or a general chit-chat. We see residents shopping at the local supermarket, attend a farm machinery auction and participating in various social organisations such as the Lion’s Club and Freemasons. Davey also provides us with shots of their working-class roots such as men hard at work in their mechanic shop and toiling their fields.
What you don’t get with this film, is what life is like inside the homes of Monrovia residents. Are they happy? Do they struggle with financial hardships given their population of only 1,063? Do they live a similar home life as our own? It makes one wonder what really happens behind the closed doors of those pretty, manicured properties and inside those quaint farmsteads.
The closest one gets to any underlying tension in Monrovia is at the town council meetings where council members discuss development issues, particularly concerning the Homestead estate and their interest in expansion for another 150 homes. Whilst one resident raises their ‘reluctance’ for further expansion, another resident raises quite legitimate concerns about the capability of civic services to provide additional water and fire services to prospective new tenants. It’s a conundrum for the town who wish to increase their populace but not at the expense of potentially losing their old small-town ways.
The film ends with an extended funerary scene returning observers to Monrovia’s central theme of strong religious values…always.
Overall, Wiseman’s oeuvre may not be to everyone’s taste, but if you take the time to sit back, relax and take in the simplicity of Monrovia, Indiana, you might just find yourself as entranced as I was.
Monrovia, Indiana was reviewed at the Sydney Film Festival by Sacha Hall, June 2019.
