MIKE
SCHANK: "You know, the way I look at it, with the lottery, sometimes you
win and sometimes you lose. But with drugs and alcohol, especially drugs, you
always lose."
MARK
BORCHARDT: "Man, I got so drunk last night, I was trying to call Morroco.
I was trying to get to the hotel Hilton in Tanger. That's just pathetic man! Is
that what you want to do with your life man, suck down pepperint schnapps and
try to call Morocco at two o'clock in the morning. That's just senseless".
MARK
BORCHARDT:
"Coven is a 35 millimeter thriller film shot on black and white reversal.
It's...an alcholic man, compelled to go to this group meeting by his one and only
friend. But they're not that helpful, the group. You know the group thing mike.
MIKE SCHANK: "Yeah"
UNCLE
BILL BORCHARDT: "It's allright, it's okay, there's something to live for,
Jesus told me so!".
MARK
BORCHARDT:
"I want you to say it like you believe it!" UNCLE
BILL BORHCARDT: "I don't believe it!"
MIKE
SCHANK: "Okay, so I'm at this party, allright, and I have three hits of acid.
So I drop one, and the nest thing I know, I'm on the ground. So she dragged me
onto her lawn, and then her grand mother came home and said I had to go to the
hospital. So I woke up in the hospital and searched my pockets for the other two
hits of acid, because I wanted to drop them there. But they were gone because
they had taken them from. And they told me that it was just some blotter paper
with some acid on it, and they told me I was gonna die. But they just kept me
in there for a month, then told me I was the worst case they had ever seen, and
let me go. Yeah. I've got a million stories like that."
MARK
BORCHARDT:
Would you buy this movie for $14.95? MIKE
SCHANK: Yeah, hell yeah, man.
MARK
BORCHARDT: If I can find 3,000 people like
you across this country, man, I'm in business. MIKE
SCHANK: Of course, man, I mean... Shit,
that's what "Rush" tickets were.
MARK
BORCHARDT:
Do you think this is a little bit cathartic for you? MIKE
SCHANK: Uh, very cathartic, Mark.
MARK
BORCHARDT: Do you know what cathartic means?
MIKE
SCHANK: No.
Review:Chris Smith's
documentary tells the story of Mark Borchardt, a Wisconsin man whose dream is
to become a filmmaker. Smith met Borchardt at a university editing lab where Borchardt
was also cutting a film. Fascinated by the eccentric and maniacally driven Borchardt,
Smith decided to make him the subject of what would eventually become American
Movie. American Movie is fascinating, sad, and at times hilarious.
-Review by Aaron Caldwell
