The Whole Wide World

The concept of pulp fiction was explained in Quentin Tarantino's film of the same name. It may be one reason, as good as any, to make a film about one of the media's most renowned exponents: American Robert E Howard, who was very productive during the 1930s. If the name does not ring any bells, then titles like Conan the Barbarian and Red Sonja ought to. And not only bells, but cash registers. Howard can be seen as one of the most important of pulp writers, and as a pioneer within the related genre, ''fantasy fiction''. We meet Howard through Novalyne Pryce, a young woman with hopes of becoming a teacher. Orderliness was the name of the day in the Thornton Wilderesque small town south. It was somewhat inhibiting for an active young man. As a result, ''Bob'' Howard used the writing of his fantastic, wild, charged and not least erotically full-blooded stories as a safety valve. He is like a young bull on heat, sensitively acted by Vincent D'Onofrio. Novalyne is fascinated and a friendship with deeply romantic episodes begins. Novalyne is a child of her time and lives according to convention. She is captivated by the noble savage Bob and his world; a world not inhabited by literary circles with frivolous ways of life. Bob Howard takes his stories from within, and from the great outdoors: nature's unsensuous miracle. Anything is possible. The path of the sun - accompanied by Hans Zimmerman's rich impressionism -has a special meaning in Bob's world. It evokes great, and conflicting emotions in Novalyne's soul and body. Feelings which are not always easy to handle. The problems presented in The Whole Wide World are not far from Jane Austin's or Sylvia Plath's. Sometimes I think of Lolek and Bolek, two animated friends from a children's programme of yesteryear, and their easy as anything traveling in time and space, without ever needing to leave your home district. Imagination. Fantasy. Fantastic fiction. This great little story about the great little narrator of great stories is a fine piece of ''Americana''. Who would have imagined that a world of a mighty muscular sword-swinging dragon-fighter, century-old magicians, statuesque and fatally lightly steel-plated feminine ideal prototypes (Pamela Anderson - eat your heart out!) and nine hoofed snake creatures, were once created amongst the corn fields and apple pie. J L

Medverkande
Vincent D’Onofrio, Renee Zelwegger, Ann Wedgeworth: Producent
Carl-Jan Colpært, Dan Ireland, Vincent D’Onofrio, Kevin Reidy: Manus
Michael Scott Myers, based on the memoir ”One Who Walked Alone” by Novalyne Price Ellis: Foto
Claudio Rocha: Musik
Hans Zimmer & Harry Gregson-Williams: Talat språk
English