Schultze Gets the Blues (2005)

Schultze Gets the Blues, by Griz Bear Man

If you like getting scared shitless you might see "The Exorcist" (although why anybody actually would enjoy subjecting him or herself to over two hours of sadistic mind-fuck like "The Exorcist" is Greek to me). Similarly, if you like getting bored, you might see "Schultze Gets the Blues."

Don't get me wrong--this is not a bad flick. It is beautifully filmed, intelligently conceived. It's just that the film-makers do such a good job that you really see and experience the world from the point of view of Herr Schultze. Trouble is, Schultze is one boring dude and lives one hell of a boring life. The desultroy pacing of this flick reinforces this.

You've got to hand it to old Schultze, he gives it his best shot, given the cards he has been dealt, namely, a dull provincial German town where he's lived and worked all his life as a coal miner, that is, before a forced early retirement. The one thing that distinguishes ol' Schultze is that, like his father before him, the dude plays a mean accordian, at least according to the standards of his drab hometown and the questionable tastes of his equally phlegmatic fellow townspeople. Then one evening, Schultze tunes into the radio and hears Cajun zaideco music straight from the Louisiana bayou country. So he picks up his accordian and begins to pick out the tune he is listening to. Well, his new-found musical tastes don't go over so big with some of the townspeople, who deride it as "nigger" music. But some of Schultze's more broad-minded friends, few in number, applaud wildly.

Well, not to give too much away (as if there is much to give away), Schultze wins a trip to the Texas bayou country, which he finds a tad overwhelming--in one scene Schultze quietly puts his accordian away and wanders off after listening to a Cajun kick butt on stage with some smokin' accordian. Old Schultze, who was to be up next, is a bit out of his league.

From there, that's basically what Schultze does--wander off, through the bayou country, a stranger in a stange land getting an education in culture. His English is poor, so he is pretty clueless, and even more so when he encounters Cajun French. And so is the viewer--clueless. As I said, the film does a bang-up job of getting you into Schultze's world.

Finally, again without giving too much away, I will just say, I wonder what the point was, for Schultze does not seem to have a revelation, or seem to in any way get much more of a clue. Still, there are some touching moments, such as the black woman who lives in a houseboat on the bayou, who befriends and feeds Schultze and then takes him dancing, after he has been wandering the bayou for a few days in a boat he shanghaied--I have to say Schultze showed a little chutzpah there.

The film is also touching at the end, because of the way it shows how Schultze's hometown has been changed in a small, subtle way by Schultze and his conversion into a zaideco accordian player.

In short, the film was kind of boring, but in an artful way. So, oddly enough, I rather enyoyed it. Anyway, it sure beats the hell out of watching two hours of sadistic, upchucking, head-spinning, teen-age, demon-possessed mind-fuck.

Cheerio, mates!

Grade: B+