tieman64 Wim Wenders collaborated with Sam Shepard two decades ago on "Paris, Texas". That film starred Harry Dean Stanton as Travis, an elderly man who travels from Texas to Los Angeles in the hopes of reconciling with both his estranged son and ex-wife. After failing to atone for his obsessively jealous, violent past, Travis disappears into the desert from which he came."Don't Come Knocking" tells virtually the same tale. Also written by Shepard, it finds Shepard playing an ageing actor who abandons the set of his latest western in order to visit his mother in the small town of Butte, Montana. Once there he attempts to reconcile with his two illegitimate children, and the waitress who gave birth to one. Again bookended by the desert, the film charts a very broad metaphorical journey out of a forlorn Old West - with its preponderance for sex, violent masculinity and philandery - and into the town of Butte. Butte's portrayed as a place in which time stands still, its inhabitants living in the wreckage of Shepard's last visit.The film's different from "Paris, Texas" in minor ways. Shepard's naive and seemingly less guilt-stricken than Travis was in "Texas". Meanwhile, the family he's left behind seem to be coping perfectly fine without him. They're stronger, less vulnerable and far less bitter than their counterparts in "Texas". Indeed, they all eventually forgive and pity Shepard. And while Travis seemed consigned to a life of loneliness, and even death, Shepard's given a quasi heroic ending, waving a cowboy's hat and riding a horse off into the sunset while a film crew looks on. Caccooned in the past, he's less immediately threatening than Travis.These differences are minor, though. For the most part, "Don't Come Knocking" is wholly inferior to "Paris, Texas". Wenders and Shepard admit to making up their script as they went along, don't seem to have any definitive goal in mind, and their film features 2 or 3 silly moments, all of which involve Shepard's son throwing incredulous tantrums. Elsewhere the film trades in clichés, though actresses Sarah Polley and Jessica Lange manage to do special work with their characters. Lange in particular plays her part somewhat unconventionally, her character masking pain with private humour.Despite its problems, "Don't Come Knocking" looks amazing. Virtually every scene is shot with an interesting eye, Wenders lending the film a wonderful sense of mood, space, colour and landscape. The visuals are so strong you almost don't care about the story, which is the case with most of Wenders' best films. Why is this? One must remember that Wenders often travels the world with a Polaroid camera, taking photos of interesting locales, architecture, buildings and landscapes. He then compile these photos into private albums. Often his films then become "excuses" for "filming" these albums. "Don't Come Knocking", for example, was largely made as an excuse to shoot the town of Butte, which Wenders had visited and photographed over a decade earlier. The town strongly reminded him of Edward Hopper, a number of whose paintings Wenders emulates here."Don't Come Knocking" is also heavily influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni, Nicholas Ray and Yasujiro Ozu. Many of these artists Wenders has himself collaborated with. Wenders' 1980 documentary, "Lightning on the Water", for example, was about Ray's last days, 1985's "Tokyo Ga" was a documentary on Ozu, and he collaborated with Antonioni on 1995's "Beyond the Clouds". Significantly, all these artists, as well as Hopper, are typically termed "existential artists" (though the term has perhaps lost all useful meaning). Wenders also labels himself an "existential director", and is generally preoccupied with alienation and questions of self-identity. Occasionally his Christian beliefs influence his films as well.Perhaps no other director has made as many "road movies" as Wenders. He'd even name his production company "Road Movies", and almost always uses the genre as a kind of metaphor for journeys of self discovery or escape. But the way in which Wenders merges European modernism with America genre filmmaking (he's in love with Americana, American culture, music, iconography etc) has rightfully led to much criticism. His is a kind of romanticised alienation, a designer existentialism, overly preoccupied with outer decor and style. You see that with "Don't Come Knocking", its characters and plot an afterthought, whilst its buildings and vistas, shot lovingly in widescreen, like moving odes to Hopper, are the raison d'etre.8/10 – Eye-popping visuals and palatable mood make up for trite script. See Wenders' "Land of Plenty". Worth one viewing.

Ali-71 I don't really know Wim Wenders work other than Paris Texas, so had no expectations, but I found this film a real gem. The characters are wonderful. The performances (particularly Eva Marie Saint and Jessica Lange) are amazing. The whole thing looks fantastic, and the music is perfectly judged. I read it described as a film about a man who tries to reconcile with his past - and somehow the film manages to fit in 5 or 6 complex relationships so well that you get really transported to his/their world. Jessica Lange has a scene that is one of the best scenes I have ever seen. (actually she has several, but you'll know which). Initially I wasn't sure if Sam Shephard's character showed enough charisma for you to believe his life as the lovable rogue, but everything else is so good I'm thinking I might have got that wrong - perhaps at this point in his life where he is full of guilt it would have taken away from the story if he was still a charmer. Strangely the copy I bought on Amazon was only about 1hr45 which shows less than show on IMDb, but I didn't feel I had missed anything. Perhaps it was cut after theatrical release for the better because I can't really understand why the film I watched wasn't a huge success, I loved it.

Kahuna-6 If you need a movie to show the absurdities of life, then "Don't Come Knocking" will be the perfect choice. Right off the bat, we have a proposition - the ultimate icon of male virility, a big, strong cowboy, running away. He is not escaping hardship. He is leaving a movie shoot filled with creature comfort, sex and all the drugs he can use. In his first act of atonement (or is it castration?), he gave up his horse, boots and even his spurs. Then he walked in his socks out into the desert.Surely a man suffering a mid-to-late life crisis should deserve some sympathy? But Sam Shepard, who co-wrote the script, didn't cut him any slack. In fact he had done such a good job playing this character, it is strange he wasn't even considered for an Oscar.So he went for a little walkabout in the wilderness. Did he have any vision? From the back of a bus, he saw a man in an electric blue suit wandering along the highway carrying a set of golf clubs.He decided to go home to mum; except for a little inconvenience of not having even called his mother for the last 30 years. In another piece of excellent casting, we see Eva Marie Saint as the forgiving mother. Of course, this is a Wim Wenders movie and mum isn't always as sweet as apple pie.Now in the sanctuary of his mother's home, our cowboy looked back at the follies of his life. The director arranged this in the form of a scrapbook of tabloid's clippings. We are left wondering like the hero on what is true and what is not.But the ranch he had known as a boy is no more. Instead, his hometown had been turned into a frontier casino. He didn't even recognize someone who claimed to be his high school classmate. Disillusioned, our hero fell again. In his movie, he would have ridden off or die in a hail of bullets "Just Like Jesse James". But he was ignominiously arrested and sent home like an errant teenager.In the midst of sorting out what left of his life, his mother let on that he may have had a son out of a movie set fling. Off he went in search.And hot on his heel is a bondsman who had underwritten the movie. The Hollywood template would be a tough muscle man in an action packed chase. Nope, we have Tim Roth in yet another brilliant performance. Just like our hero, our bondsman is a loner. While he may be comfortable in his own cocoon filling out crossword puzzles, he does make feeble attempt to connect. He just yelled out loud into the desert asking if anybody is out there.Into the last third, we have all the players coming in for the showdown.Kiss and make up? Got two. One, in front of a gym with guys on their exercise bikes looking on. The other, a hilarious swipe at the classic screen finale.Gunplay? Yeah, a single shot. In a scene that starts off with a wonderful time lapsed photography of a car in a deserted parking lot, the usual cowboy / Indian drama is inverted onto its head.Don't watch this movie if you can't afford to have it haunting you. It is like a Zen koan, it will just keep buzzing around your brain. Don't believe me, I'm writing this at 5 in the morning.

loracbau I found this movie to be a reflection of the West, the Great American West. Don't Come Knocking is a 360 degree look at the cowboy icon. Especially the Hollywood Cowboy icon, which of course is quite different from what was any real cowboy who ever existed in the 'old' West. This movie pays homage to the western while also being an anti-Western, or un- Western. Maybe so many people love the clichéd mythos of the west they cannot look at reality, but this movie shows the reality. Howard Spence is an alcoholic womanizer, who is a movie star cowboy. Does he actually embody rugged individualism that is so broadly displayed in the the Western Themes, or is it really just an act he has clinged to all his life? And what is left if he realizes it's all been an act? The reality of a real cowboy is the man he finds in his escape from a movie set, a guy living in a shack. We find out that Howard is not a likable man, he doesn't call his mother, and has never really cared for or about anyone other than himself. This is the cowboy story, the aspects of the story no one wants to think about, or care about. The old girlfriend he abandoned long ago sees through him. Howard Spence personifies the West, a loner, miserable who hasn't seen his mother in 30 years, and has to come to terms with his indiscretions at some point when he discovers he has a son he never knew about. This movie has some homage to the great westerns, not only those from the 40s and 50s, but also Clint Eastwood, as so clearly referenced in the movie poster in the restaurant where ___ works. He's such a 'great hero' that we all love, the loner-savior cowboy who can't seem to have any lasting relationships with women. What is wrong with him? What is so great about him? That is what his son asks him, when he comes knocking after so many years of nothing.