The Package
GEORGE WASHINGTON’S makers David Gordon Green and James
Orr deserve credit for bringing A DAY WITH THE BOYS to light
(they discovered it in the archives of a film warehouse where
they worked), and even more for allowing it to be released on
DVD with their film (particularly since it’s far more powerful
than anything in GEORGE WASHINGTON!). Backed by Universal
Pictures and boasting a slick, professional sheen, this film is
leagues ahead of most short films, and clearly had a much
greater budget than is average for such fare (and furthermore
was invited to compete for the Cannes Film Festival’s
prestigious Palm D’Or award). The filmmaking is so assured it
seems surprising that this was the only directorial effort by
Gulager, who you may have seen in supporting roles in films as
varied as THE KILLERS and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.
The Story
No mere plot transcription could possibly do justice to
this film’s astonishing play with cinematic narrative
techniques-like all truly great films, A DAY WITH THE BOYS
doesn’t impart a “story” so much as an all-encompassing
experience.
A group of grade school boys converge in a mountainous
region on the outskirts of a big city. An edgy, ominous
atmosphere is introduced by a haunting musical refrain and
frequent onscreen title cards that record the passage of time,
as if counting down to some cataclysmic event. The boys indulge
in several hours of seemingly innocent frolic (hide n’ seek,
sliding down hills on pieces of cardboard, endless role playing
games) before venturing into the city, where they convince a
businessman to join them. ***SPOILER ALERT!!!*** They
lead the unsuspecting man far away from the city and into a
forest where the suspense builds, reaching its apex when the
boys line him up against a deserted shack and point toy guns at
him, any sense of “fun” having long since evaporated (all
Vietnam references, I assume, are strictly intentional). The
businessman is pushed, cluelessly laughing, into a hole and
buried alive. The boys fill in the grave and mark it with the
man’s briefcase, and then, in one of the most ingenious and
innovative meldings of image and music I’ve encountered in any
movie, a pan reveals three similar graves marked with their own
deceased occupants’ emblems: an umbrella, a basket and a child’s
doll.
The Direction
In his bold, poetic approach, Clu Gulager manages to
pack a decade’s worth of experimentation into a fast, economical
20 minutes. Images dissolve and bleed into one another,
freeze-frame and turn into paintings. Gulager also utilizes
different camera speeds and even (and this is something I
haven’t seen before) the grain of the film to achieve his
effects. Laszlo Kovacs’ sun bleached photography helps
immeasurably in streamlining such techniques into a powerfully
eccentric, disturbingly compelling narrative. Far from
pretentious (the word I’d use to describe most “experimental”
films from the late sixties), this film comes off both as a
celebration of childhood innocence and an uncompromising
examination of its darkest extremes. And furthermore, Gulager
and Kovacs achieve what may be the most unsettling final freeze
frame ever.
Vital Statistics
A DAY WITH THE BOYS Universal Pictures
Director/Producer/Screenwriter: Clu Gulager
Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs
Cast: Ricky Bender, Artie Conkling, William Elliott, Jack Grindle, John Gulager, Mike Hertel, James Kearce, John McCaffrey, Mark Spirtos, Craig Williams