Nathalie Rothschild
posted 14 July 2005

Dear Wendy is the latest collaboration between Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, the Danish Dogme 95 duo. It is a story of six pacifists - Dick, Stevie, Susan, Huey, Freddie, Sebastian - and seven guns - Wendy, Bad Steel, Lee & Grant, Lyndon, Woman and Piece.

18-year-old Dick lives in Estherslope, a southeastern US mining town, where he grew up under the protection of a big, black woman called Clarabelle. Actor Jamie Bell is best known for his lead role in Billy Elliot, in which he played a motherless boy growing up in a northern English mining town. Like Billy, Dick lost his mother at a young age and, much to his father's discontent, is 'Too sensitive, too skinny and too weak' to work in the mines like the other men of Estherslope.

Instead, Dick opts for a job in a mini market, and after his father dies in the mines, he leads a secluded life. But his escapism soon takes more eccentric forms. After buying a toy gun for Clarabelle's grandson Sebastian, whose birthday party Dick is forced to attend, his life changes radically. He is strangely drawn to the gun and decides to give Sebastian an old book instead.

Soon after Dick accidentally shows the toy to his co-worker Stevie, who informs him that it's not a fake gun but a real 6.35mm six-shooter. Stevie himself is the proud owner of a 7.63mm Model 1898 Broomhandle, which he calls Bad Steel. Dick names his gun Wendy. 'It's definitely a she.' The two boys carry their companions with them wherever they go and spend their free time learning all there is to know about guns, criminals and shot wounds. After some time, they feel the need to share their enthusiasm with others who might benefit from some trigger-happiness. They round up all the 'losers' of Estherslope and initiate them in their secret club, 'The Dandies', whose primary rule is 'Never draw your weapon'. They are, after all, pacifists.

The Dandies are social outcasts who develop a strong sense of loyalty and friendship amongst each other. Their gun fetish pays off in the form of confidence, self-assertion and goodwill. Not only do they decide to convert a criminal into a dandy, help his old granny overcome her agoraphobia and challenge irrational fear between strangers, but Huey also starts asking girls out, Freddie doesn't get beaten up as often in school and Susan's breasts finally start to grow.

Dear Wendy is another outlet for screenwriter Von Trier's tirades against American society in general and small-town America in particular. Manderlay, which premiered in Cannes this year, is the second part of his 'USA - the Land of Opportunities' trilogy. It was preceded by Dogville and will be followed by Washington in 2008. Von Trier, who is afraid of flying, has never been to the US, but has said that 'America has to do with 60 percent of my brain and all things I experience in life, and I'm not happy about that…But I can't go there and vote or change anything there. That is why I make films about America.'

This critique of American gun culture and small-town mentality is, unlike a documentary such as Moore's Bowling for Columbine or a realist film such as Van Sant's Elephant, delivered through bizarre twists and stylistic devices, such as handheld cameras, which is of course old news when it comes to the Dogme posse. Von Trier and Vinterberg compose their film through pastiche. The story is carried forward by Dick's slightly ironic voice-over in a style inspired by Barry Lyndon, Kubrick's 1975 film. The soundtrack is dominated by the 1960s cult band The Zombies. Then there's the style of dandyism and the set, modelled on a West Virginia town, but shot in Denmark and Germany, which, especially during a dramatic clash between the Dandies and the police, is reminiscent of American Westerns.

Ultimately, however, the message behind Dear Wendy is summed up in Vinterberg's statement: 'Pacifists with weapons is what most of the Western world consider themselves.'