Central California
“At Home He Feels Like a Tourist”
Finding an American Son in Bakersfield
by John Esther
In director Neil Abramson’s American Son (Winghead Films in association with Map Point Pictures and Night and Day Pictures), “Mike” (Nick Cannon) returns from Camp Pendleton back home to Bakersfield, California for a 96-hour leave before shipping off to Iraq. Poor, with an average intelligence, Mike thought his life would improve by joining the Marines. He knew the dangers of joining the military during wartime but those dangers were abstract and distant, unlike the ones that faced his friends and family back home. Drugs, poverty, violence and general debauchery were phenomena Mike witnessed directly. Focusing on the days before war, Abramson’s American Son expresses a predicament many young men and women from America’s working class neighborhoods face. Without economic resources, these individuals join the armed forces in hope of a better future.
If you sign up for the military these days, you may be going to Iraq. However, what opportunities would exist for someone like Mike if he remains in Bakersfield? Bakersfield is the eleventh largest city in California, with an estimated population of about 308,000. The greater Bakersfield area also has a higher crime rate than the national average, with murders and property crimes reported as the major problems, according to the 2006 FBI Crime Report. Yet since the invasion in March 2003, many of Bakersfield’s young people, like SPC Sgt. Lester D. Baronini, 33; Clay P. Farr, 21; PFC Alberto Garcia, Jr., 23; Sgt. 1st Class Luis Gutierrez-Rosales, 38; Staff Sgt. David S. Perry, 36; Sgt. Benjamin Brian Porkill, 27; Sgt. Angel de Jesus Lucio Ramirez, 22; and Ramon A. Villatoro, Jr. 19, have been among the 3,960 Americans who have died in Iraq as of February 14, 2008. Many more from the area have been injured.
American Son made its premier appearance at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the most prestigious film festival in the United States. Abramson shot the film in Bakersfield and Pismo Beach, California. A documentary filmmaker and photographer who had seen many tragedies and wars since the days when he grew up in South Africa under Apartheid, the Los Angeles-based American Abramson spoke to Vision Magazine about his film.
Vision Magazine: Why did you want to make American Son?
Neil Abramson: It intrigued me that nobody is focusing on who these kids are [who] are going to Iraq. They’re from lower-middle income families and cities and I wanted to shed a light on what’s really happening and focus on “the war at home,” ironically.
VM: Why did you want to set this film in Bakersfield as opposed to any other low or middle-income community?
NA: It’s symbolic of many cities around the country in many ways. On a visual level, it has a real sense of atmosphere. It has a real sense of place, which would be [part of the] character of the film.
VM: In what way is it symbolic?
NA: The size of the city and the things that are happening within the families and society are very universal. It’s one city for many cities around the country.
VM: The city seems to offer few opportunities. Mike has few role models. Is this your experience traveling and during your research for the film?
NA: Yes, in some ways. People are struggling to make ends meet. Families are suffering under that pressure. Those are a lot of the issues the film deals with.
VM: Seeing so much destruction at home, why would Mike join the Marines knowing the high likelihood he would go off to war and see even greater destruction?
NA: At that age, he doesn’t fully understand the ramifications of where he’s going or what he’s doing. He just feels that joining the Marines is a way out and a way to better his life.
VM: Which relates to your title, American Son. Mike really belongs to nobody anymore except the American government.
NA: Absolutely. In some ways, that’s where the title comes from; that’s really what the film is about. The film is a snapshot of American youth, family and, at heart, it’s a love story. It’s operating on different levels.
VM: Did it seem like a lot of people from the area were doing duties in Iraq and Afghanistan?
NA: There are quite a few. Since Sundance, there’s been a tremendous amount of response [to the film]. People are coming up to us telling us how they relate to the story. They’re like, “Finally, a film from the home front.”
VM: I understand in the earlier drafts, Mike dies in Iraq. Why did you remove that from the storyline?
NA: That went away pretty quickly. I felt it was just too labored. The film is very subtle. It allows the audience to decide. Non-political is a way to describe it. It just felt too heavy-handed. Obviously [soldiers die], but it didn’t feel right for the script. We were keeping it neutral in the sense [that] we have a kid trying to get out and [who is] falling in love—sort of like a modern day American Graffiti.
VM: You mentioned “non-political.” Does the film have any political intentions?
NA: I had social intentions. I’ve experienced war a couple of times. I did a film about child soldiers in Uganda. I went to Sierra Leone and filmed the war there. I grew up in South Africa during Apartheid and shot the hostile wars during Apartheid. The film is not about the war. The film is about the kid at home and American culture now. It’s not an anti-war statement. I set out to make a social study and entertainment at the same time.
VM: Considering your experiences in Africa, do you see a connection between black youth in Africa and young people like Mike living in Central California?
NA: There is a mixing of races and it’s really more of a class thing. Let’s not fool ourselves—there’s still a lot of racism. [However,] there’s a lot of mixing of races in the lower classes and the film shows we’re in a new era in [America] in terms of race. Race exists really profoundly on one level and you’d be a fool to think there’s no racism in the country. But on another level, there’s a mix of race due to economic class structure that is quite profound. That factor is really evident in the fact that a guy like Barack Obama can be doing so well in…the presidential race.
VM: The film reflects a change in that, for so long, the upper classes have been using race to pit the working classes against themselves instead of seeing the real enemy. Now, with all the racial deconstruction going on, it is much harder to do that.
NA: Absolutely. You are correct one hundred percent.
For more information, visit www.neilabramson.com. John Esther is a Los Angeles-based writer focusing on cultural concerns via cinema.