The Good
In a very short amount of time this film manages to make us fall in love with its characters.
The Bad
This movie should have been longer.
Filled with memorable characters, Diggers is the kind of movie that the independent film world used to be known for. The film concerns a group of clam digging buddies who don’t want, or are unable to come to terms with the changes happening around them.
The film centers around Hunt (Paul Rudd), a guy who likes to take random pictures of things and doesn’t really seem to question where his life is headed. He seems happy even though it is clear that he might like to explore other avenues in his life. His best friends are Frankie (Ken Marino), a man who seems like he’s permanently on the edge, he’s got more kids than he knows what to do with, a wife that he doesn’t know how to treat right and nothing he does seems to improve his situation. Then there’s Jack (Ron Eldard) an easy going sort who seems to have no problems currying the favor of the various women that he comes into contact with. Lastly, there’s Cons (Josh Hamilton) and out all the people in the group, he’s the one that seems to be the most on Hunt’s “arty” wavelength. Cons is always thinking about things, examining their inner meanings and his friends seem to put up with him because they’ve known him for so long.
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There are female characters in this movie like Frankie’s wife (Sarah Paulson), Hunt’s sister Gina (Maura Tierney) and Zoe (Lauren Ambrose). While these characters certainly affect the males in this film, they more or less go along with the story being told rather than playing a hand in its inevitable outcome. Still, these ladies all hold their own and across the board this cast plays as top notch.
Features
Director Katherine Dieckman and writer Ken Marino do the honors for this commentary track. Marino talks about how this script was taken from his life, and how he wanted to show the kind of clam digging work that his family did and how it eventually got pushed out by big interests. The Director points out scenes that she put her daughter in, the locations that they shot in, and why certain scenes were ultimately excised from this movie. Marino and Dieckman also discuss the camera set ups and how they were used to try and tell us more about each character. While not the most interesting commentary track I have ever heard, it was entertaining.
Higher Definition: Diggers Episode
“Baymen
This is a documentary on real life clam diggers. It is older but very well done, and it actually plays quite well as a supplemental piece to Diggers the film. We get a historical perspective on how clam digging started, how it eventually became a business, and also what a boon to the business the formation of New York City was. Then we find out how things like how the railroads helped expand it, the effects of the seasons, and the various types of clams that can be culled from the ocean.
Deleted Scenes
Edited together in one chunk, I decided to listen to these scenes with the commentary track turned on. Dieckman and Marino again offer their opinions here. We see scenes of Hunt having a panic attack, more scenes with Mrs. Conella, more scenes with the bigger clam company South Shell, etc. I really would have liked for this movie to have been longer. None of the deleted scenes appear like they would confuse the story, but I wasn’t in the editing room and maybe that’s why I think the film works as well as it does? If you are a fan of this movie, I would suggest checking out these scenes because I feel they enlighten and inform all the characters.
Video
1.78:1 - Widescreen. I am not sure what the budget of this movie was but they did a very find job of pulling off the late 1970s look that it had. From the homes that were used, to the period cars, to the clothing the characters wore, everything had a real feeling of time and place. Also, using a lot of cutaways and shots of the surrounding locales, I felt steeped in this movie with these characters. When they experienced something, I couldn’t help feeling like I had experienced it as well. While some might call the look of this movie arty, I found that it all looked and worked very nicely for the subject matter.
Audio
Language: English, 5.1 Dolby Digital, 2.0 Dolby Digital. Make no mistake about it, this movie is clearly a dialogue film. That isn’t to say that a soundtrack hasn’t been employed, it just seems that for budgetary reasons more than anything else, Dieckman had to depend on the characters interactions in order to evoke certain moods. There are songs in the film but for the most part this movie seems to hang on ambience. The fact that it deals with really universal themes also helps it resonate that much more.
Package
The front cover features three separate pictures of Sarah Paulson, Paul Rudd and Lauren Ambrose (in that order). The bottom portion gives us a shot of the four main characters that appears like it was supposed to be a promotional still. The back cover has another shot of the guys like this (only this time at the funeral for Hunt’s father), some more pictures, a description of what this movie is about, a Special Features list, a cast list and technical specs. Overall, I think this cover should have just focused on the four guys but for what it is this packaging is fine.
Final Word
Not a lot really happens in this ensemble piece whose central theme seems to be about men approaching middle age realizing that they’re not kids anymore. This isn’t to say that there isn’t anything going on in this movie. As I am 33 I can relate to the themes of the film. I know all too well what it’s like to “drift.” To get too comfortable in your job, your situation, your life… to the point that you have no idea that what you think you love (your world), is actually suffocating you. We see all the characters come to terms with this in their own ways, and as such each character responds to it differently. Also, it seems like these characters know that they need this wake up call and that is what is so difficult about it. Life is certainly tough enough without being shaken out of the world you’ve always known but it is necessary, right?
Director Katherine Dieckman adds a serene sense of airiness to this film. In a lot of ways I was reminded of Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, as well as Edward Burns more recent The Groomsmen. Dieckman simply presents each story and I never got the sense that she was passing judgment on any of the characters. They all seem to have different lots in life, but they are tied together by the fact that they’ve been doing this job that seems to be going away from them.
I saw Diggers as an elegy for that time in life that we loose after we grow up. Some people think our life cycles are as simple as birth, we grow up, adulthood and then we experience old age. It seems like there are middle phases in there that often get passed over. This film examines the one that happens once all the expectation is gone and people want results. That time when you’re no longer a young man or woman, and while you’re not yet over the hill you’re fast approaching the point where the descent is imminent.
Diggers was released January 1, 2006.
