MOVIE REVIEW : CARRADINE HEARD ‘AMERICANA’ SING

‘Americana” (at the Monica 4-Plex) sounds potentially pretentious, but by the time this mesmerizing poetic fable is over, it has more than earned so sweeping a title. A labor of love, the making of which David Carradine, who directs and stars, devoted 14 years of his life, “Americana” cuts right to the core of the eternal contradictions--that tug between the impulse to create and the impulse to destroy--within the American psyche so painfully revealed by the Vietnam War.

“Americana” is also one of those films with such a sense of ritual about it, such rhythmic pacing and lush, sensual beauty in its heartland sounds and images, that it can carry you away. You may want to see it again, to make sure that it’s really as terrific as it seemed; on a second viewing it seems even more impressive.

It’s Kansas, 1973, when Carradine, wearing worn khaki with an Airborne patch on his sleeve, wanders into a sleepy, bump-in-the-road village indistinguishable from countless others, except for a derelict carrousel standing lopsidedly in a field alongside a road. Instinctively, he knows that he has found what he’s been looking for, and sets about restoring it.

Why, the taciturn townsfolk wonder, is he doing it? A man of few words himself, Carradine, when pressed, explains offhandedly that “it’s something to do.”

However, Carradine so effectively communicates without words that he is a man who has survived a hell on earth that we understand he is satisfying an intense craving to create rather than to destroy, to affirm peace and beauty in the face of war and ugliness--and finally, simply to give rather than take.

But the townspeople have a hard time seeing it this way. At best, the men regard Carradine as a harmless eccentric who’s at least cleaning up an eyesore. And one old woman, remembering the pleasure the carrousel once gave the town, says the womenfolk are grateful. But some bored young layabouts are overcome with an urge to knock down both Carradine and the merry-go-round. Will he and the carrousel survive his attempt to restore it?

Carradine has, in fact, unwittingly given the community a challenge: They can respond to this renewed symbol of innocence and joy, which is in direct contradiction to the cockfights staged regularly in the ruins of a nearby church. For all its laconic, dry humor, “Americana” steadily builds suspense as it becomes nothing less than a symbolic struggle for the salvation of the American soul.

Happily, none of this is as literal or schematic as it may sound. In this very free adaptation of Henry Morton Robinson’s “The Perfect Round,” screenwriter Richard Carr, Carradine (both as actor and director), cinematographer Michael Stringer and composer Craig Hundley (whose superb score is at once folksy and shimmering) articulate their heroic myth so beautifully and concisely that it taps emotions that lie beyond words. “Americana” is a work of the utmost simplicity and subtlety, spelling nothing out, inviting us to perceive in it as much meaning as we wish.

Its catalyst is the local garage mechanic (Michael Greene, in a remarkably wide-ranging portrayal), who charges the film with ambivalence and gives it dimension. He’s the one person in the entire film with complexity, a man whose decent impulses are in conflict with his selfish, baser ones; the character with whom we identify.

He’s also the one man with a glimmering of what the enigmatic Carradine is all about, and he extends friendship and a job. (Barbara Hershey is a local girl who silently responds to Carradine’s efforts but is hopelessly enmeshed with the town deadbeats, who would probably rape her were she not prepared to make herself so available to them.) But when Carradine later on jokingly asks Greene if he’s being generous because he’s “queer,” Greene is so profoundly offended--and possibly threatened--that it momentarily jeopardizes their entire relationship.

It is Greene who subsequently provokes Carradine into playing out one of our most cherished myths, that of the man of peace who is forced, against all his wishes, to resort once more to violence so that he may fulfill his mission. It’s the key American myth in a nutshell: A man’s got to be prepared to fight to fulfill his dream, his manifest destiny. If only for a moment, however, Carradine forces the townspeople to see the dark, contradictory side of this belief and the price it can exact. (There is also a price exacted in using the actual citizens of Drury, Kan.: They don’t always react as vividly as moments like this demand.)

“Americana” (rated PG because some scenes may be too intense for youngsters) may well prove a landmark film. It’s one of those quirky, highly personal projects that actors are driven to pursue at all costs. Thankfully, David Carradine has had the talent and tenacity to bring to life a dream to which we may all respond.

‘AMERICANA’ A Crown International release of a Skip Sherwood presentation. Producer-director David Carradine. Story and screenplay Richard Carr; based on “The Perfect Round” by Henry Morton Robinson. Camera Michael Stringer. Music Craig Hundley. Production designer Rick Van Ness. Costumes Pat Greene. Stunt coordinators Dan Haggerty, Greg Walker. Wood carvings Haggerty. Merry-go-round mural by Devin. Film editors Carradine, David Kern. With Carradine, Barbara Hershey, Michael Greene, Arnold Herzstein, Sandy Ignon, John Barrymore III, Greg Walker, Bruce Carradine, Glenna Walters, Fran Ryan, Claire Townsend, Buz Storch, James Kelly Durgin, Rick Van Ness.

Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG (some parental caution advised).