My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done

When the film begins and you see 'David Lynch presents a film by Werner Herzog', you realise that you have really leapt into the deep end and are about to watch something that is directed by a man who has made a film in the middle of a civil war, has almost driven actors to madness and pulled a gun on his leading man and is produced by one of the most eccentric, abstract and infuriatingly brilliant talents who ever set foot on a film set. Furthermore, with a title like My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, you really should go into this expecting something a little bit weird, a little bit strange and extremely challenging. As if the names David Lynch and Werner Herzog weren't warning enough that something mad was in the air, the presence of Michael Shannon in the lead should notify you that you're about to watch something extremely strange.

Michael Shannon, or so it seems, has made a career out of portraying people with severe mental problems, from someone who goes insane in William Friedkin's Bug, to someone who is mad in Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road and here, in My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, he plays someone so deeply unhinged that he runs his mother through with a sword.

Inspired by the real life case of Mark Yavorsky and written for the screen by Werner Herzog and Herbert Golder who penned the first screenplay in 1995 but didn't secure a producer and distributor for nearly 15 years, this is a strange kind of film because you already know going into it (or, if you don't, you realise in the first 10 minutes) exactly who has been killed and who killed her. It's always slightly challenging to figure out exactly what Werner Herzog set out to achieve in his film that he makes absolutely no secret of it here, saying that he wanted to make 'a horror film without the blood, chainsaws and gore', relying instead on a 'strange, anonymous fear creeping up in you'.

The film is only inspired by the Yavorsky killing and Herzog changes the name to Brad McCullum and freely admits that about 70% of the screenplay is false with only certain elements taken directly from the real case with other parts imagined, or based on parts of the real case notes. Employing a non-linear narrative, Herzog begins the film in a squad car when news reaches Detective Havenhurst and Detective Vargas that a murder has taken place. They then drive to the house and see a man walking through the crowd towards and then past them casually drinking a cup of coffee. Once they have seen the murder scene and spoken to the witnesses, they realise that the man with a cup of coffee is the murderer.


My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done follows the detectives' conversations with the witnesses and is told mostly in flashback, starting in Peru were McCullum is preparing to kayak along a raging river. The detectives learn that Brad has taken two hostages and is demanding pizza for the three of them and a car so he could drive from San Diego to Mexico.

Meanwhile, Brad's fiancée, Ingrid, shows up and cast further light on Brad's extremely disturbed state of mind which possibly began when a couple of his friends drowned in that Peruvian river and that he was in rehearsals for a Greek tragedy at college directed by a German stage director called Lee who shows up as the pizza is delivered. A further flashback shows Brad and Lee visiting Brad's Uncle Ted, who owns an ostrich farm, and lends Brad an antique sword which he wants to use in the play. Rather prophetically, the play features the central character, played by Brad, killing his mother with a sword.

This is a film with a rather peculiar title, a director who isn't exactly known for his straightforward, family friendly films (the nearest is probably Rescue Dawn) and with an executive producer who has made some of the most abstract and challenging films of recent years. It is quite easy to get lost in the narrative and I probably only fully understood what exactly was happening on the second viewing as there are so many flashbacks and bizarre occurrences in the stand-off between Brad and the SWAT team that occasionally you are not sure what is what and exactly where or when the events you are watching are taking place. As if these two filmmakers and the casting of Michael Shannon weren't enough, Werner Herzog even brings Udo Kier into the film as Brad's drama teacher, Lee.


There is a tremendous central performance by Michael Shannon and, with the likes of Udo Kier (Lee), Chloë Sevigny (as Brad's fiancé), Willem Dafoe and Michael Peña (as Detectives Havenhurst and Vargas respectively) plus prop Brad Dourif and long-time David Lynch collaborator Grace Zabriskie really on top form, you have a formidable ensemble cast.

I thought that Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans was a bit of a strange, confusing and bizarre offering from Werner Herzog, but that was nothing compared to My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done which really seems to combine traditional Herzogian filmmaking with Lynchian surrealism and peculiar imagery.

The Disc

Extra Features
The commentary, with Werner Herzog, Herbert Golder and producer Eric Bassett is interesting as they go through what is real and taken from the real Mark Yavorsky case and what has been fabricated or exaggerated whilst going through locations, casting and other aspects of filmmaking.

Behind the Madness: the Making of My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is a 27 minute interview with Werner Herzog and Herbert Golder in which they talk about how the project came about, how they became interested in the case, meeting and interviewing Mark Yavorsky and the logistics of working together. Oddly, they are interviewed separately but this means that they can talk freely without the other one interrupting and can be cut so that they don't repeat each other's stories and it flows quite well, shedding a great deal of information on how the film was made.


The Picture
I was surprised at just how poor the contrast levels were with darker scenes being grey, rather than black but the outdoor scenes are nice and bright with excellent colours and sharp edges. Herzog resisted the temptation to show the murder and the nearest you get is someone covering the corpse with a pool of blood on the floor but really this is enough to convey the horror of the situation. Some of the location shooting is a bit strange as, when Brad went to Calgary, that was shot in San Diego (or Los Angeles, I forget which) so you can see some palm trees out of the window!

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is nice and clear doing a great job with the dialogue and score by Ernst Reijseger which really underscores the more horrific nature of the subject material and Brad's unhinged nature.


Final Thoughts
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done is a film that really could have only been made by the likes of David Lynch and Werner Herzog as it takes a certain degree of controlled insanity to really harness someone like Michael Shannon and get the most out of him as an actor who really knows how to play insane (his Academy Award nomination was for playing the certifiably crazy John Givings in Revolutionary Road). Although this isn't vintage Herzog, it is still an utterly compelling watch and is a decent, though not exceptional DVD package so fans of Herzog's work should really check this one out.