John Jost
- The contradictions between the striking, natural beauty of the almost desolate Oregon countryside with the desolate, depleted lives of it's inhabitants, interspersed with prolonged, disaffecting scenes in a lumber mill, creates an immense and persistent atmosphere of foreboding ill.
- Quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Every violation of the truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society". Parallelizes the transgression between father and daughter with the transgression between human society and the environment. A telling portrait of inherent contradictions in US society.
- Technique:
- Coloured (occasionally dis-coloured) still shot of Ray driving his car juxtaposed with high-contrast (over-exposed or bleached), almost black and white, mobile up-angle sequence of receeding trees and the sky (shot from a moving car) - such that edges of Ray's pale white face merge with the bleached sky.
- Conversation frame with two characters: tilted angle shot with one character in the mirror along with down-tilted-angle shot of the other character.
- Conversation frame with two characters: extreme closeup shot with one character to the left and the other behind to the right, at a distance. Focus shifts between characters midway the conversation.