All the Help We Can Get

I spent this afternoon at the movies: in the movie theater and not in front of a TV or computer screen. I saw Logan Lucky a Steven Soderbergh film, and I was the only person in the theater. To a large extent Logan Lucky is a heist film in the Ocean’s Eleven Twelve and Thirteen family, but to my mind it contained a strong political text that was harshly critical of the direction of recent trends in American society. The theme song of the film seems to have been John Denver’s paean to West Virginia, “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” though the romanticization of the state in the song is belied by the reality of life in this rural, Southern state. There is very little of almost heaven in the lives of the Logans and their eventual co-conspirators. The film begins with the firing of Jimmy Logan from his job because his limp is considered a pre-existing condition and therefore an insurance liability. Clearly, the time of the film seems to predate the Affordable Care Act, though recent attempts to repeal the ACA threatens again the possibility of insurance for those with pre-existing medical conditions.  Jimmy Logan in desperate need of money plots to rob the Charlotte Raceway during the NASCAR Coca Cola 600 race along with his brother, Clyde, who lost a hand in the Iraq War, and an assortment of misfits, prison inmates, working class comrades and friends­, some of whom were women but certainly not lovers. In a series of wonderful twists, this ‘gang’ successful pull off the robbery, and Jimmy, who has masterminded a sub-text to the heist, distributes part of the haul to a variety of surprised, sometimes unaware accomplices. Robin Hood comes immediately to mind, but I think Woody Guthrie’s Pretty Boy Floyd seems more appropriately linked to Jimmy Logan’s largesse.
     NASCAR is a quintessentially American sporting professional group situated predominantly in the South and that seems to cater to a large extent to a working class, often rural population. These are the Trump base. But the film depicts a corruption that sits at the center of the organization and evidenced when the administration of the race track that has been robbed collects insurance money for the lost revenue and cheats the insurance company by overstating how much money was not recovered from the robbery. The administrator then of the Raceway stops the FBI investigation in order to protect this piece of fraud. At the film’s end, the FBI agent who had led the investigation quits the FBI and moves to the West Virginia town where pretense and greed are not basic values.
     I appreciate the political theme, muted though it might be. In this nightmare of the Trump presidency, every little bit of support of opposition offers hope that this too, might pass.