The Backwater Gospel

The Backwater Gospel from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

The Backwater Gospel is animation and filmmaking at its best.  It still surprises me to this date that this was an undergraduate project.  Everything has a grungy wooden texture from the dusty town to gritty townspeople’s skin.  It’s rustic, the laws of the old west seem to apply.  Everything is very purposefully chosen.  Shots include very clean silhouettes, exact placement and framing of buildings to characters.  Interactions and body language are pre-determined.  What I love about animation is that everything can be exactly the way you envisioned, and this precision applies here.

Even in the day the scenes feel dark and it has the trademark of quick succession angular shots taken from the horror genre.  The color palettes are black and white, blue washes, sepia tones, grotesque greens, sickly yellows, and dark shades of reds.  At the beginning we see a man fall to his death, the undertaker then arrives as an angel of death, and quietly goes about measuring the man for his coffin setting the tone for the remainder of the film.

We go from long arid landscape shots, to grizzly close ups of the townspeople. The appearance of the crows expects that death will befall someone of Backwater.  To prevent being taken, the God-fearing citizens walk zombie like to church for salvation day in and out.  Their hymns are almost a slow sounding moan.  In tandem, the town Tramp sings of the Undertaker while the Preacher purses his lips in disgust.  The Tramp only smiles.  In this film, it will only be the Tramp, the Undertaker, and the Preacher, who express satisfaction – but Death is the only winner in the end.

Beginning his sermon, the Preacher sets the story in motion, “One bad apple.  That’s all it takes… Do you want to save that barrel?  Then throw out that apple… But if you fail to destroy that apple… the punishment was Death.”  During this speech we continually cut back to the Tramp, alluding that the Preacher is turning the town against their “bad apple”.

Still smiling, the Tramp interrupts the sermon announcing the Undertaker.  The town then flees into their homes, we see close ups of boarded up windows and doors.  Distorted wide lens shots are coupled with extreme and uncomfortable close ups and leaves the audience itself on edge of what will happen next.  This of course is the stillness of Fear and Death – both key players in this story.  We wait, along with the townsfolk for who the Undertaker has come for.  One frame shots are interlaced with distorted ghostly figured, crucifixes, and violent imagery of the anarchy to come.

After seven days the Undertaker has still not moved.  The Preacher rings the church bells and the town carefully leave the safety of their homes.  The Preacher blindly singles out the Tramp, faulting him for the torment and fear of the unknown.  “…we have been tormented because that son of perdition refuses to fear …The Lord wants us to destroy the bad apple… I say: the blasphemer shall be stoned!”  The crucifix again appears, shot by shot: one cool palette shot of Death’s wings, then the fiery palette of the Preacher bringing the congregation to action.  The chaos that ensues is a witch hunt for deliverance.

The Tramp is now the only character with any saturation of color, separating him from the crowd.  The camera shots almost feel handheld and shaky.  As the Preacher’s assistant leaves the final blow, we zoom out to see the crucifix repeated in the Tramp’s dead body.

Everyone waits in anticipation for the Undertaker to take the body and leave.  The undertaker simply stays smiling, causing further panic.  Ultimately in the fear of the unknown, the townsfolks turn on each other – “It ain’t gonna be me!” and begin to slaughter each other to save themselves.  This violence leads to the full destruction of the town that come morning, leaves a blood bath.  The Undertaker has sat in place this entire time, but finally moves.  He whistles the Tramps song from the beginning and ends the film where he began – measuring a body for a coffin.

This film is beautifully shot.  Wide landscapes make us feel the expanse of this world and Backwater’s tiny place in it.  Shot from above or below make us equally scared or imposing.  What I really love is the repetition of themes.  The director chooses very intense and direct moments to show characters with pupils to humanize them such as when the Tramp is murdered, or the Preacher’s assistant realizes the mistake he’s made.  In divergence, when characters lose their morality they’re eyes are either dark black pits, or white silhouettes.  It’s certainly a comment on societal conformity, and primarily the hold fear can have on humanity.  It brings to question believes, priorities, inclusion and exclusion, and the power of crowd psychology.  Past that, I think this film can be taken with a grain of salt, simply as a must watch fantastic visual experience.