What the film ‘Rebuilding’ knows about home
I don’t watch very many newer films these days but on a recent flight I enjoyed Rebuilding starring Josh O’Connor and directed by Max Walker-Silverman. It’s not going to blow away most viewers but I really like those reflective, slow-burn films where a sense of place helps to tell the story. I recently wrote about similar themes at American Habits on the film Tender Mercies starring Robert Duvall.
With some upcoming content focused on a sense of place, I thought I’d reflect a little on what I took away from Rebuilding.
I’ve never been much of a Bruce Springsteen fan but I do like those opening lines in Born in the USA:
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
Dusty, played by Josh O’Connor ends up resonating deeply with that after his land is destroyed by a wildfire. He’s a cowboy but really has no real future in that life, unless he decides to go work for a cousin up in Montana for a possible short or longer stent. He doesn’t really know. Everything about this film and his character makes it seem the future is up in the air and whatever that future is appears to be bleak. Except he has a daughter from a failed marriage that helps to make him wonder maybe he should be close to her. At least a few of the people in his life remind him of that.
I guess what struck me most of all about this film is the obvious point that place is not interchangeable: when disaster strikes, recovery is not just about replacing property but about restoring the web of family, neighborhood, and local community that makes self-government meaningful.
There is a line in the film—“you get what you get”—that comes alive over the course of the story. In another context it might sound resigned or even hollow, but here it feels poignant. It speaks to the need for gratitude in difficult times, and to the discipline of accepting life as it is before you can begin rebuilding it. It takes quite a while for Dusty to get there.
My dad was an Air Force pilot, and while that nomadic life gave me great adaptation skills and I got to see the world, sometimes I struggle a little with what home feels like or looks like. I love North Carolina but 10 years in one place makes me feel a little restless, too. I’m still trying to figure that out for myself as I intentionally want my boys to understand what being rooted in a place is like.
Rebuilding is not really about grand recovery or triumphant reinvention. There is a great deal of realism and heartbreak in the aftermath of disaster, but the film is ultimately about finding ways to adapt while still paying tribute to the past because there is real value there.
—Ray Nothstine
— The Federalism Beat