Directed by Laura Dunn
Produced by Douglas Sewell, Jef Sewell, Dunn & William Warren
Director of Photography, Lee Daniel
Edited by Dunn & Emily Morris
Released by Cinema Guild
USA. 93 min. Not Rated
Cast: Robert Redford, William Greider, Wendell Berry, Ann Richards & Gary Bradley
[Article originally appeared: http://film-forward.com/unforese.html]
We learn a number of things watching Laura Dunn’s documentary “The Unforeseen” – urban sprawl has affected the water eco-system of Austin, Texas, and that actor/longtime environmentalist Robert Redford, one of the film’s executive producers (along with Terrence Malick), puts his money where his mouth is. “The Unforeseen” does have some big names on and off camera, and the production values are gorgeous – think back to the cinematography of films such as Badlands, Days of Heaven, and A River Runs Through It – but while there is a dramatic payoff towards the end, the film’s structure at times works against itself.
Fundamentally, “The Unforeseen” is about a group of concerned citizens fighting to save their beloved Barton Springs, a naturally spring-fed swimming hole in the heart of the city. Running concurrently is the story of Gary Bradley, an ambitious real estate developer, born dirt poor on a farm in west Texas. As a young man, Bradley headed to Austin in 1969 with the singular goal of striking it rich. And that he did. Extremely ambitious, Bradley became the poster child for the stereotypical greedy real estate developer as Austin’s population boomed. And no doubt some of that description is warranted. The documentary, rather, paints a more complex portrait.
No doubt the film’s dramatic structure might have been more heightened had Dunn instead portrayed Bradley as a monster. But Dunn instead shows his human side. In a quiet and moving series of interviews, Bradley reflects on his youth, the pulsing desire to prove himself to his family and friends back home, and his ultimate fall from grace. And while two dramatic moments have much impact – where the grassroots activists win a temporary victory over a planned mega-development (the biggest ever in Texas) near an aquifer and when Bradley describes having to go home to bury his mother shortly after declaring bankruptcy – the celebrity interviews/reminisces with the late Governor Ann Richards, Willie Nelson, and Redford (who swam in Barton Springs as a youth) impinge on the doc’s overall tension. It’s insightful and heartwarming to see Ms. Richards, a Texas icon, in her last filmed interview, but does it work for the film? The interviews, while pertinent to the subject matter, feel disruptive to the rhythm of the film. In the end though, “The Unforeseen” reminds us how human beings – whether schoolteachers or even real estate developers – can, at their best, affect positive change.
