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The Battle of Shaker Heights - 8/22/03 - PG-13 - 90m
Shia
LaBeouf - Kelly Ernswiler
Elden Henson - Bart Bowland
Amy Smart -Tabby Bowland
Director: Efram Potelle & Kyle Rankin
Screenplay by: Erica Beeney
Studio: Miramax
Official
Website
JEF
Thanks go out to Lyn for suggesting this movie. And although
it meant taking a special trip into Philadelphia, I’m really glad
that we did.
Storyline: Kelly Ernswiler (Shia LaBeouf) is a 17 year
old high school student who in his spare time belongs to a group of people
who re-enact World War II battles. Other than this sort of odd hobby,
he’s your typical high school student struggling to fit in. He’s
a bit on the nerdy side, and a bit outspoken which is not exactly a good
combination to have in high school. He also works at a 24 hour supermarket
as a stock boy, and it’s there that he has a romantic interest in
his co-worker Sarah (Shiri Appleby) or rather she has a crush on him.
Kelly has a problem with one of the bullies, Lance (Billy Kay) in his
school who is always tormenting him, so after he meets up with one of
his fellow war re-enactors Bart Bowland (Elden Henson), the two of them
decide to use their knowledge of the battlefield to stage a retaliation
strike against Lance.
And as a sort of second plot line running along at the same time, Kelly
starts to fall for Bart’s college age sister, who by the way is
due to get married in a short time.
First off, if you didn’t know it by now, this movie is the product
of HBO’s special called Project
Greenlight 2. A documentary style program that was the brainchild
of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. These two famous actors came up with this
idea to have this show where we the TV viewer gets to see the behind the
scenes of what goes into the making of a movie. And the twist is that
the people who are chosen to write and direct the movie are winners of
a contest. The winners are given a “small” budget, a film
crew, sound crew, etc… everything that they need to bring their
vision of a movie to the big screen. I really have to give Ben and Matt
a congrats for this idea, and without their help, talent, and money these
winners of the contest would probably have had a much more difficult time
breaking into Hollywood. It’s an excellent way for these two actors
to “give back” a little and help out some new upcoming talent.
Ok, enough of the Project Greenlight plug… Onto the movie…
This movie is probably going to be the best-written screenplay I’ve
seen all year (it’s about 3/4 into the year now). I thought the
dialogue and storyline, and jokes in this movie were excellent! Not always
100% believable, but just believable enough. Some of the witty tirades
of the main character Kelly were fantastic. It really captured the sort
of “I think I know everything” that a typical 17 year old
might have, in addition with a say what’s on your mind attitude.
I won’t be able to do it justice here, but for example, Kelly is
in the principles office of his school after he disagreed with his history
teacher’s presentation of a Word War II battle. The Principle was
frustrated with Kelly’s behavior and said, “I just don’t
know how to get through to you”, so Kelly replies, “Well,
Advertising agencies use sex and music to try and appeal to my demographic”.
A classic line 
Overall the storyline and plot were interesting, and you really wanted
to see what was happening in Kelly’s life. I do believe there were
some moments of the story that may not have been polished enough, for
example, I totally missed what went wrong with Kelly’s old Jeep,
and there is a scene with his father that was unclear to me exactly what
happened. I also had a hard time believing the relationship of a 17 year
old and a Yale college girl, but overall these elements were minor, and
did not detract from the movie, just things that could have used a little
more work. Perhaps if they had a larger budget, and more time, these elements
could have been worked out.
The movie is opening in small theatres around the country, and hopefully
with good word of mouth it will continue to open in some of the larger
theatres, and more of them. It is a short movie at only 83-90 minutes,
but it feels just about right. Yes, there were some rough spots in the
film where the editing or sound may have not been perfect, but given the
background of how this film was made, I was willing to be forgiving.
If you happen to see this film playing at one of your local theatres I
would strongly suggest that you try and see it. Despite its minor flaws,
it is a good movie.
Jef
PS> I did not see the HBO special “Project Greenlight”
for the making of this movie. I went into the movie only knowing what
I did from the trailer. So don’t feel like you had to see the HBO
special in order to appreciate the film. But I’m sure you will have
a deeper appreciation for the film if you did see the making of it. Perhaps
if or when this gets released on DVD the two will be together. I will
probably pick this one up on DVD when it is released.
PS2> I also have to say that I really don’t like the movie poster
associated with this film. The stark black and white with the red background
is just too harsh, not to mention the illustrations are not flattering
of either Shia or Amy Smart. It has a 1960’s hippy feel to it, and
this is not a good representation of the film.
