American Dreams

“James Benning’s films belie the cliches often attributed to avant-garde film. Elegantly conceived and realized, they are seductive as much for their visual audacity and originality as for the intellectual conundrums they challenge the viewer to resolve. ‘American Dreams’ is chock full of concrete, discrete elements that comprise an American iconography of the past three decades. “The film encourages a kind of perverse nostalgia for ‘the good old days’: Nixon’s ‘you don’t have Nixon to kick around any more’; Elvis’ response to questions about his gyrating style and the rumour that once he shot his mother; Patty Hearst’s ‘Tania’ statement; Senator Ribicoff’s reference to ‘Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago.’ All of which is punctuated by the music of the period and set against a composite image of Hank Aaron memorabilia… and the sordid diary jottings of the would-be assassin, Arthur Bremer.” – Karen Cooper, Film Forum,1983