Anne Taylor Robertson Blog 2: Northfork

Michael Polish’s Northfork hits on the importance of death in a community. Northfork is about a small Montana town in the 1930’s facing imminent danger as a local dam is about to flood, which will cause their entire town and valley to be submerged in water. The entire population of the town prepares to leave and move away, and the story focuses on their preparations as well as the emotional and physical difficulties they face in leaving. The town is being evacuated as the local priest reads a story to a sick young boy who is dying. No one will take the added responsibility of moving the boy out of town, essentially leaving him to die. The priest, therefore, stays with him, and retells the story of the town back in the day. The boy faces a more tangible death, while the rest of the town has more of a choice. Six men are sent from the government to evacuate the town, and they often struggle to remove its stubborn inhabitants. While all this is going on outside, the boy is reconciling his life with the afterlife by entering a dream-like state where a cast of odd characters comes to love him and take him far, far away. So far away, in fact that to him it is another world. It is left up to the viewer to decide whether this place is death, but ultimately, it seems that the boy is happy. The rest of the town, stubborn adults, are hesitant to leave and face decisions about what they should take with them. It is an ultimate picture of what we can truly take when we go, and what really matters when all is said and done.