The Basket (1999)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Rich Cowan

Writers:

Don Caron (screenplay) &
Rich Cowan (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

5 May 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A picturesque Pacific Northwest community raising its wheat and children in the midst of a nation reeling...

Plot Keywords:

Period Piece | Independent Film

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Peter Coyote	...	Martin Conlon
Karen Allen	...	Bessie Emery
Robert Burke	...	Helmut Brink
Amber Willenborg	...	Brigitta Brink
Jock MacDonald	...	Nicholas Emery
Eric Dane	...	Tom Emery
Brian Skala	...	Nathan Emery
Casey Cowan	...	Samuel Emery
Tony Lincoln	...	Reverend Simms
Patrick Treadway	...	Frederick Treadway
Ellen Travolta	...	Agnes
Jack Bannon	...	Marcus
Elwon Bakly	...	Ben Emery
Joey Travolta	...	Charlie Cohn
Paul Hostetler	...	Old Helmut Brink

MPAA:

Rated PG for some mild violence and brief language.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color | Color (Alphacine)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

USA:PG | Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Garfield, Washington, USA

Company:

North by Northwest Entertainment

Trivia:

Spokane basketball player #2 is Scott McQuilken, actual Athletic Director at Whitworth College. McQuilken later made his stage debut as Egeus in the school's fall 2003 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When we see the envelope Mr. Conlon is mailing, it shows the 2-letter state abbreviations for Washington and Massachusetts. These weren't adopted until 1963, when zip codes were introduced. More likely, the abbreviations would have been Wash. and Mass.

Quotes:

[last lines]
[quoted from a German opera retold during the story]
Martin Conlon: Together we shall fly.

Soundtrack:

Der Korb

true to the time and place

This was a video store closeout, and a remarkable find. The best part first. Having had relatives and in-laws who lived there in the time, this looks and feels real. The horse drawn harvester, to start with. The blue sky and tufts of clouds, the golden hills and pines - not fake at all - it's the northern Palouse in early fall. The attitudes of the people are just what I'd expect. Suspicious of anything new or foreign - Spokane was the IWW headquarters just prior to this period, and dangerous radicals such as Joe Hill(strom) wandered all through the basin making trouble for the established citizenry. WWI had a huge effect on Northwest labor history, and the tension between loyalty and freethinking was strong. Yet there was also the great thirst for culture, and a pre-mass media naivete, in these places - a yearning for art perhaps inspired by living in the midst of great beauty. Finally, all those stark white houses, churches and schoolhouse sitting forlornly out in the wide open. The movie gets ALL of this right.

Sadly, there isn't much of a story to complement the pictures. The problem with small town life is that it was boring, and it's hard to find a believable story with a lot of drama that fits. Focused on the relationships only, this might have been something like A River Runs Through It or Napoleon Dynamite (both of which play against similar scenic backdrops). Focused on the sports story, perhaps Hoosiers. Focused on outsiders fitting in, perhaps Days of Heaven. But muddled all together, it comes out like a string of TV episodes, like Little House on the Prairie. Very melodramatic, with all the music swells and dramatic incidents that usually precede a commercial.