SUMMARY: Sam Shepard, long considered one of America's great playwrights of the modern era, offered a powerfully American voice in works that portrayed the darker side of American family life. He was also a renowned actor, earning an Oscar nomination. Jeffrey Brown looks back at his life and work with playwright and actor Tracy Letts after Shepard's death at age 73.
SUMMARY: “Manchester by the Sea” is the story of what happens after an uncle is asked to take care of his nephew after the death of the boy's father. The film deals with loss, grief, and the idea of closure, but director Kenneth Lonergan tells Jeffrey Brown it's really a story about love.
ANTONIO MORA (NewsHour): It's award season in Hollywood, and one of the most highly praised films of the year, “Manchester by the Sea,” was nominated for six Academy Awards this week.
Its director, Kenneth Lonergan was nominated for two of them.
Jeffrey Brown spoke with him recently at the Atlantic Theater in New York.
This report is part of our ongoing coverage of awards for the 2016 movie season, Beyond the Red Carpet.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): In an early scene in the film, “Manchester by the Sea,” Lee Chandler learns that his recently deceased brother has named him as his nephew's guardian, and the weight of the world comes crashing down again.
CASEY AFFLECK, Actor: He can't live with me. I live in one room.
ACTOR: Well, but Joe has provided for Patrick's upkeep, food, clothes, et cetera. And the house the boat are owned outright.
CASEY AFFLECK: I can't commute from Boston every day until he turns 18.
ACTOR: I think the idea was that you would relocate.
CASEY AFFLECK: Relocate to where? Here?
JEFFREY BROWN: As played by Casey Affleck, Lee is a lost, mostly silent man at sea over some hidden grief.
But, says director Kenneth Lonergan, it's more than that.
KENNETH LONERGAN, Director, “Manchester by the Sea”: I don't see it as a film about grief. I see it as a film about love, and about people trying to help each other and take care of each other, as much as it's a film about grief. It is about grief, obviously, but it's really about someone who's trying to do right by his family, even though he's ready to quit.
