Shepard & Dark is the remarkable story of a friendship in letters.Shepard & Dark is the remarkable story of a friendship in letters.Shepard & Dark is the remarkable story of a friendship in letters.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 1 nomination
O-Lan Jones
- Self
- (archive footage)
Scarlett Jones
- Self
- (archive footage)
Jessica Lange
- Self
- (archive footage)
Jesse Shepard
- Self
- (archive footage)
Storyline
Did you know
- ConnectionsFeatures This So-Called Disaster (2003)
Featured review
It serves it's purpose as a documentary
As a fan of Sam Shepard's, epistolary tales, documentaries, and slice-of-life studies of individuals and relationships, I was drawn to watch this film about actor, writer, director Sam Shepard and his lifelong friend, Johnny Dark.
The film posits that it's an exploration of Sam and Johnny's friendship through their decades of letters, which The University of Texas Press ended up publishing in a book in 2013 titled Two Prospectors, The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark. Johnny, an archivist, had saved all of his letters; Sam saved some.
The part I found most interesting was the period of time they lived together as a family: Johnny, his wife Scarlett Johnson, and their daughter, (Scarlett had a brain aneurysm out of the blue, became disabled, emotionally raw, and childlike), and Sam, married to Scarlett's daughter O-Lan Jones, and their son Jesse. Sam was great with Scarlett at that time.
The goal of exploring the letters felt only somewhat met to me as bits of letters are read from. A history of this friendship with it's many levels and changes is documented. It was the point where Sam up and left his son Jesse to be with Jessica Lange that I wanted to stop watching the film. I pushed on because I was curious and wanted to see it through.
Johnny talks in the film about how he realized he felt relegated to being Sam's sidekick, always doing what Sam wanted. The movie ends with a letter Johnny wrote to Sam basically saying how he would always love him and make sure they stayed in touch because the friendship is important to him.
The portrait, which felt odd and disjointed to me, showed dark and tormented sides of Sam; it left me feeling hollow, like lost in a tunnel. Perhaps the onus is on me for not getting the filmmaker's vision. I'm unsure how to rate it. I imagine it will appeal to many viewers more than it did to me so I gave it a seven. Personally, I wish I had not watched this film.
The film posits that it's an exploration of Sam and Johnny's friendship through their decades of letters, which The University of Texas Press ended up publishing in a book in 2013 titled Two Prospectors, The Letters of Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark. Johnny, an archivist, had saved all of his letters; Sam saved some.
The part I found most interesting was the period of time they lived together as a family: Johnny, his wife Scarlett Johnson, and their daughter, (Scarlett had a brain aneurysm out of the blue, became disabled, emotionally raw, and childlike), and Sam, married to Scarlett's daughter O-Lan Jones, and their son Jesse. Sam was great with Scarlett at that time.
The goal of exploring the letters felt only somewhat met to me as bits of letters are read from. A history of this friendship with it's many levels and changes is documented. It was the point where Sam up and left his son Jesse to be with Jessica Lange that I wanted to stop watching the film. I pushed on because I was curious and wanted to see it through.
Johnny talks in the film about how he realized he felt relegated to being Sam's sidekick, always doing what Sam wanted. The movie ends with a letter Johnny wrote to Sam basically saying how he would always love him and make sure they stayed in touch because the friendship is important to him.
The portrait, which felt odd and disjointed to me, showed dark and tormented sides of Sam; it left me feeling hollow, like lost in a tunnel. Perhaps the onus is on me for not getting the filmmaker's vision. I'm unsure how to rate it. I imagine it will appeal to many viewers more than it did to me so I gave it a seven. Personally, I wish I had not watched this film.
- Sasha_Lauren
- Apr 10, 2021
- Permalink
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $10,278
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $1,226
- Sep 29, 2013
- Gross worldwide
- $10,278
- Runtime1 hour 32 minutes
- Color
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