Film Review: General Orders No. 9

Robert Persons feature debut invokes Terrence Malick in this tone poem to Nature lost, screening at reRun Theater in Brooklyn this weekend

Composed of footage shot and collected over eleven years, Robert Persons’ directorial debut General Orders No. 9 is the second coming of Koyaanisqatsi, Southern Gothic-style. Referring to Robert E. Lee’s farewell address to his troops after surrendering to the Union, General Orders is a visual tone poem lamenting the gradual disintegration of the South’s natural beauty in favor of human settlement and infestation. Juxtaposing languid, pastoral scenes of Nature within the Georgia wilderness that he appears so fond of with fairly bleak, cold cuts of factories, highways, and seemingly abandoned institutions, Persons picks his side rather obviously if beautifully.

The narrative poem that is invoked over the film’s running time by narrator William Davidson is equally languid in delivery but direct in message. The idea of Nature’s timeless purity being polluted by humanity’s insistence on settlement and order is simply stated in the phrase “deer trail becomes Indian trail becomes country road”. Yet Persons is even accepting of the way rural life coexisted with the land, suggesting that even people can live harmoniously with the wildlife and trees. That is, until industrialization began, signified by the highway system which becomes as close to a villain as one finds here.

The highway leads to the city, which Persons regards as not even a place but a cold, alien being that eschews sharing for dominance. Washed out, black and white images of cars careening down the highway, once full forests reduced to mounds of mud, and other signifiers of industrial progress parade across the screen. Again, such imagery was resonant in Reggio’s work but that had more to do with both time than anything else. In spite of the valid point Persons makes (still applicable decades after Koyaanisqatsi), it now feels almost sentimental. Many people probably instinctively understand that society has lost as much, if not more, as it has gained through technological progress. However, setting aside the perhaps passé message he hopes to drive home, General Orders No. 9 is perhaps as beautiful a film as one can see.

Less documentary and more visual essay, it seeks to reach its viewers through impression not education. The scenes of forests, rivers, and clouds steadily crossing the sky are visceral and rich in tone. Progressing along in a rather aleatory manner, as though editing via thought rather than plan, Persons has assembled a work that is near Malick-esque in terms of subject and style. Alas, he has a long way to go but this is an assured start that deserves a viewing at least once.

To learn more, go to www.generalordersno9.com