Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pagePlagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea (2004)
Director: Chris Makepeace, Jeff Bridges
Movie review
From Time Out Chicago
Narrated with morbid relish by John Waters, this witty doc chronicles the rise and ruination of the Salton Sea, a tiny inland ocean once promoted as “California’s Riviera” but now a festering, apocalyptically hideous ecological disaster zone. The man-made sea was created by accident in the early 20th century when a poorly engineered irrigation project collapsed, flooding a lakebed that had been dry for centuries. The nearly 400-square-mile lake was expected to disappear, but snowmelt and agricultural runoff have perpetuated it, albeit at the cost of steadily rising salinity. The sea was developed into a glamorous resort area in the 1950s, but in 1976 flooding caused by inept irrigation management destroyed local infrastructure and turned the lake into a reeking cesspool subject to cycles of algal bloom, bird and fish die-offs and biblical fly infestations. It’s pretty much the armpit of the universe, but a handful of hardy and self-reliant souls choose to live there. Some are old-timers too stubborn to let a mere cataclysm push them around; others—including a leathery old nudist, a boozy Hungarian insurrectionist and a Jesus-freak folk artist—were drawn to the deserted lake by its frontierlike atmosphere of freedom. Saddest and funniest of all, however, are the real-estate speculators sitting on huge tracts of hell and ritually persuading themselves that renewed good times are just around the corner.Author: Cliff Doerksen
Time Out Chicago Issue 118: May 31-June 6, 2007
Top Stories
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
Cannes Film Festival 2012: half-time report
Dave Calhoun reports on the hits, misses and a shocking new masterpiece from Michael Haneke
What do you think?
Post your review now