Looking at the title of this picture made me unreasonably optimistic that it may be a documentary on Joe Chambers, the jazz drummer from the 1960s whose work with Bobby Hutcherson on the vibraphone is remembered as a progressive composition that inspired Frank Zappa.
But no, it’s not. From the title alone, it is clear that the subject is Joseph Chambers, not Joe this particular Joseph Chambers is far from being an African American musical prodigy, but instead is just another simple white man grappling with deeper issues. He is portrayed by Clayne Crawford, who, let’s be honest, forged his career by being a rough-edged, disheveled American male with issues in desperate need of therapy. We all have encountered those painfully wounded and traumatized souls that so many are these days. In 2021’s “The Killing of Two Lovers” he plays a bearded rural white man who is grappling with the deeply troubling notion of killing his wife and her new boyfriend. Why don’t more people seem to empathize with him? Maybe it’s his beard.
The movie starts with a spooky dolly shot of some woods. It was written and directed by Robert Machoian. The title character starts to shave his beard, and in a very ‘stylized’ swoop, is left with a mustache that he tells his wife is called a hunter’s mustache. While over the top dialogue with his wife over the phone, we discover that this particular Joseph is adamant about going on a solo hunting trip in the morning.
Tess does not support the trek. She wants him to remain in bed. She reminds him that he does not need to bag an animal because he works as an insurance salesman and is very skilled at it. Therefore, they can afford groceries. She remembers while she and Joseph moved to Tess’ rural upbringing area Pell City, Alabama, to raise their children in a ”safer” setting, I do not want me and Joseph to metamorphose into end of the world Fox News people, which I guess is what Tess parents are. Joseph stubbornly claims, If things get worse, we may need to know how to do this stuff.
He hasn’t done the math which might clue a more intelligent individual that if things DO get worse, the wilderness would be filled with morons who think they can hunt to survive and would kill each other, and the odds are, they will.
How ready is Joseph in his quest to bag a “ten pointer”? Not very. Joseph has to wake up one of his buddies before sunrise to borrow a rifle and pickup truck. Once he is on his “property” from which to hunt, which Joseph claims is private land owned by one of his other buddies, he imagines everyone applauding him while he climbs into the deer blind. When it is convenient, he takes a nap. If he wants to, this is not as bad a strategy as he may think because one of the main rules of deer hunting is the hunter has to be very quiet and motionless because deer are very shy animals. Then he goes for a stroll in the woods without leaving breadcrumbs to mark his way. He realizes the fact that my dad took three trips to the woods to learn, which is deer hunting is extremely dull. Eventually, he finds himself in the woods pretending to be a pitcher in the 1991 World Series. No, I didn’t look it up. You can if you like.
Now we are already thirty minutes into the movie. Meanwhile, Joseph is still “relaxing” by pacing on a cliff while singing I am the mustache man/king of the mountain, yes I am at the top of his lungs. Perhaps you are wondering, isn’t it wonderful if something takes place over the next few minutes in the movie, lest it tries to imitate Jeane Dielman, which is supposed to be for action-loving nerds? But, alas, Joseph notices a deer. One that does not seem to care about all the noise he is making while singing. This sets him off in a frenzied chase and he ends up getting more lost in the woods with no breadcrumbs to retrace his steps. Suddenly, he hears a sound, spins, and takes a shot. Then we find out, that with this single bullet, he has not killed a deer but a man. Which, by the way, is incredibly lucky. And his aim! What a joke.
Out of nowhere, he is able to find his way back to the pickup truck. But before, he does so he sheds multiple tears, lets loose a bunch of wails, and begins praying to God. In a miraculous twist, after all this, he glances back into his truck bed, and guess what? There is a shovel and a pick axe waiting for him. Time to get to work.
Only what if the guy is not dead? And what if the not-dead guy is some sort of real survivalist out there waiting to set candid Joseph straight? Easy now. We probably have enough to write an additional hour of movie, right? Almost. Not quite. But the point is, you get and perhaps there is not much to get of the idea.
‘The Integrity of Joseph Chambers’ is a rationally developed non-hero’s journey which, I guess, most people will relate to if they are not already fed up with dissecting the Crisis of White Masculinity movies in the United States. As for me personally, I find this topic unreasonable, tiring, visually repulsive, and repetitive. Whatever the reason behind the filmmaker’s actions, what he truly seeks is some noble cause through a character who is an idiot, and nothing more or less, making futile and unfortunate desperate decisions over and over again until, uh, “integrity” forces them to face themselves and make the right moral decision. Bravo, the idiot.
Someone make a Joe Chambers documentary quickly, please. He is alive at the very least. He is only 80 years old. Surely, it is likely that this will be better than this weeping test of patience.
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