Carthage is a nice town in east Texas, it’s a place where people leave their doors unlocked, everyone knows each other, and where in 1996 the town’s most loved citizen shot its most despised.  Bernie, the new film by Richard Linklater, director of School of Rock and Dazed and Confused, stars Jack Black as Bernie Tiede, who killed his friend and benefactor Marjorie Nugent in a fit of rage, then lavished her money upon the town.

Richard Linklater has been one of the more difficult to classify directors of the past two decades. He has made studio films such as School of Rock and Dazed and Confused, along with more personal art-house features such as Slacker and Waking Life. Bernie demonstrates Linklater as a director with a truly mature style, the film shows his fondness for straightforward basic camera work, while his use of narration and interviews makes it feel less like a movie, and more like a story being related to you by a friend over lunch or coffee.

The films actors really shine bringing this story to life. Jack Black is fantastic as Bernie, the deeply religious, incredibly warm, and closeted gay, mortician. You really do believe him as the nicest man in town, and can understand why so few citizens wanted him punished for his crime. Shirley MacLaine’s performance as Marjorie Nugent is subtle, it would be easier to have her be just a nasty screaming woman, but MacLaine performance helps you to understand her as a real person.  Over the past few weeks while I’ve been selling tickets to this film a lot of the customers have been seniors who wanted to see the new Shirley MacLaine movie.  Matthew McConaughey plays the role of Danny Buck, the camera mugging, media-savy prosecutor who convicted Bernie.

Hollywood's Bernie and Marjorie and the real thing.

 

Hollywood's Danny Buck

The real Danny Buck, you have to give Hollywood a little leeway.

 Probably the film’s greatest choice of casting was using local residents to play themselves, and express their own views on the events in the film. Doing so gave the film local flavor, and the residents’ unfiltered opinions provide some of the best comedy. Many of Linklater’s films such as Slacker, Dazed and Confused, The Newton Boys, are love letters to his home state of Texas; Bernie’s use of local residents helps make this film another such love-letter.

When I was leaving the theatre after Bernie, I found myself thinking, “you know Bernie was a nice guy maybe 15 years is enough time for his crimes.” In an interview the real Bernie Tiede, he stated that hoped the film might allow his side to be understood and possibly get him paroled, in other interviews many people involved with the case were critical of the film for the same reason.

Film and other art can often make people forget the brutality of a criminal’s acts, Bernie Tiede embezzled money and then committed a murder to hide his actions, he only confessed to the crimes after being caught. The 1962 film The Birdman of Alcatraz depicted a fictionalized version of the life of Robert Stroud; the film’s success led many American’s to petition for clemency for Stroud. Fellow prisoners and guards, who knew Stroud as a violent, amoral psychopath, mocked these requests.  Jack Unterweger was a convicted killer in Austria, who began to write plays and short stories while in prison, his celebrity led to many intellectuals including Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek asking for him to be pardoned. Following his release in 1990 Unterweger killed more than a dozen women in Europe and America before being captured by the FBI. Many criminals can be very intelligent and charming, this charm can be used to convince people they are safe, but often it can be a trick.  Bernie Tiede if released would probably not re-offend, but such chances are very difficult to take.

In the end Richard Linklater has created a wonderful little chameleon of a film.  The movie changes styles from Black Comedy, to Documentary, to police procedural many times. It is a testament to Linklater’s skill as well as that of scriptwriter Skip Hollandsworth that these styles complement one another instead of compete.  Bernie’s distinct style and offbeat premise will likely keep it from being a huge hit, but this film is one that will likely be rediscovered by film fans for years to come.

Shawn Barron 06/04/2012