What can be said about why a film should be made or why someone wants to make one? I think it’s just something you know, you feel in your gut and that is often not without doubts and big questions.
When I first talked to Brad about the story and writing the script I had my doubts. Could we do this? Would the story be relevant? Would the main character be too harsh and unsympathetic? They were all true after the first read of the rough draft. A fictional story about the Hendrick family of Glen Allan, Mississippi: two brothers left by their Mother to fend off the world around them, to hold on to any dream of normalcy and family in the face of the suffocating, destitute Delta. At the center of the story was young Robbie Hendrick, The Dynamiter, our stubborn and angry (anti) hero. I wanted to bail out. I was scared: the story was too risky, and who would care after all?
But one thing to trust is the thing that won’t leave you alone- Robbie Hendrick did not leave me alone. The harsher the language, the more true and real he was. The more difficult to explain his actions, the more honest and living they were. He was alone and fighting an impossible fight- I knew this in my own way and so do you. He was in me. So began the journey to where we are now.
Over the next year-and-a-half we worked through 15 drafts of the script. Along the way many characters inhabited our version of Glen Allan, Mississippi: tow truckers, foster parents, gamblers, prostitutes and so many others. One version even delved into film noir: we tried everything. The only constant was Robbie.
Throughout the process he continued to grow and develop, becoming a stronger presence, a stronger spirit than ever before. He became such a presence that, when faced with a difficult decision in my own life, I asked myself, ‘What would Robbie do?’
I now live and work between Dallas and Memphis, about three hours from the town of Glen Allan, Mississippi, the town where Robbie and Fess Hendrick live with their Grandmother. I have chosen this work to be close to the characters and places of our film. On weekends, I drive to the rundown and beautiful town of Glen Allan. I have seen the lake that sits alongside Main Street’s boarded up storefronts, ice cream shacks and bait-and-tackle outfits. It is the lake that separates Mississippi and Arkansas. In this lake, Cypress trees grow in the water, their strange, stump-like root structures called the ‘knees of the trees.’ I have seen the Hendrick home and I’ve walked around the kitchen and bedrooms and I’ve seen where Robbie and Fess sleep and dream. A few miles from the home is the school Robbie and Fess attend – blacks and whites mixed – another part of the struggle and compassion that defines them. I have walked the streets they walk on their way to school.
Why do I love this story so much? Maybe I see some of myself in Robbie’s story. The divorce of my parents that left my brother and I to disappear into ballgames and mischief during the day. We were loud with anger and resentment then. And at night, the quiet talks we shared of a reunion. We’d hide within our dreams.
But Robbie’s too unique for comparison. And he never hides. He doesn’t know how. The Dynamiter is the portrait of a classic American boy: beautiful, haunted by family demons and yet fiercely unwilling to accept his fate. I am not Robbie and he is not me. I admire him, sometimes revere him and always learn from him. The least I can do is allow others to do the same. Give him a chance and he will surprise you.
Production for The Dynamiter is scheduled to begin on Monday, July 6, 2009. Please be sure to visit our blog on a daily basis to get the latest updates.
