Spreading Ground

Spreading Ground, Spreading Manure
If you ever wondered how certain movies get made, it sometimes helps if the writer, Ken Nakamura, is also the producer and has the resources necessary to finance the project. The British might refer to "The Spreading Ground" as a wank, whereas Americans, being more tactful on occasion, would label it a vanity production.

The plotting is beyond credibility, way, way beyond. A serial child killer is on the loose, and the embarrassed mayor, with some important city contracts on her agenda, makes a deal with the corrupt chief of police to hire a lead enforcer in the Irish mob to find and whack the killer, to hush the affair up quickly and to avoid the publicity of a trial. Thus, the chief of police is actually working against his own detectives and even leaks official leads back to the mob, a factor leading to the murders of potential witnesses. The head of the mob, named Johnny Gault (professionally played by Tom McCamus), has a nasty habit of shooting people on the slightest...

cliche ridden ...
I like Dennis Hopper and love Frederick Forrest. Neither of them are bad considering the atrocious dialogue and tired premise that they have to work with. They seem to be rolling their eyes at each other as they speak their lines. Sad to see such great talents wasted in a film filled with gratuitous violence and terrible "pop psychology" dialogue. Was there a point to this film?

I SUCK AT PLAYING GOD
Except for the F-bomb, this has all the awe and splendor of a made for TV film. Det. Ed DeLongpre (Dennis Hopper) is tasked with finding a serial child killer without any clues. Meanwhile the mayor (Elizabeth Shepherd) has brokered a deal with the local Irish mafia to find the killer (with no trial) and is using Ed's partner as a go between. Ed also has a poorly written estranged relationship with his daughter Leslie (Leslie Hope) that takes away from the story by piling on substandard writing in cliche scenes.

The opening has some good contrast scenes of the mayor performing a ground breaking ceremony and the bodies of little girls floating in the basin. As the audience we get glimpses of the killer, a man we instantly despise. The film is about Dennis Hopper piecing together clues and attempting to find the killer before the mafia does and decide they want to play god. It is an interesting crime/drama although the "touching" Hopper/ Hope scenes left something to be...

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