Limbo

Synopsis: Limbo tells the story of people trying to reinvent themselves in the Southeastern islands of Alaska. The story revolves around Joe Gastineau, a fisherman traumatised by an accident at sea years before, singer Donna de Angelo and her disaffected daughter Noelle who come into Joe's life. When Joe's fast-talking half-brother Bobby returns to town and asks Joe for a favor, the lives of the characters are changed forever.
Director(s): John Sayles
Production: Sony
  2 wins & 5 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
72%
R
Year:
1999
126 min
469 Views


Welcome to America's last frontier...

...where the final lumbering

remnants of the Ice Age...

...the massive and

awe-inspiring glaciers...

...calve cathedral-sized

icebergs into the sea...

...where nature's bounty unfolds

in a panoply of flora and fauna...

...the like of which is seen

nowhere else on the planet.

From the ocean depths,

plumbed by ageless cetaceans...

...to azure skies,

where the mighty eagle soars.

This land abounds with creatures

great and small, strange and majestic.

It is a land steeped in tradition...

...its mists redolent of the hearty

souls of men who have gone to sea:

Tlingit and Haida...

...lnuit and Aleut...

...Russian and Norwegian.

Their languages and deeds...

...lingering on in the names of our

countless islands and passageways.

A land that has lifted its siren call

to the bold and adventurous...

...to those willing to risk their lives

for the promise of untold fortune...

...be it from fur, fin, from the heaven-

pointing spires of old-growth spruce...

...or from the buried treasures of gold

or black energy-rich petroleum.

A land visited each year

by the relentless and mysterious salmon.

Each river and stream welcoming home

the king and sockeye...

- the coho and dog, pink or humpback...

...which is smashed into cans...

...and quick-cooked to give the

colourful local folks something to do...

...other than play cards

and scratch their nuts all day.

A land where that nice old lady

from Fort Lauderdale...

...who had the stroke

three cabins down...

...was probably parked next to the

thawed-out halibut you'll eat tonight...

...while your floating hotel

chugs through the Hecate Strait...

...to deliver its precious

load of geriatrics...

...to the hungry

Visa-card-accepting denizens...

...of our northernmost and

most mosquito-infested state!

So?

What's "redolent"?

Having or emitting an odour.

You mean people wanna

come here because of the smell?

Pleasantly fragrant!

- Not talking about this place.

- Damn right!

Soon as they close this down, they'll

turn it into a tourist attraction!

They'll disinfect the joint, and you can

get a job in one of those cases.

Like in a museum.

One of those displays.

Dioramas!

Dioramas. In that diorama...

...they'll hang fake fish guts

all over you, put a label underneath:

"Typical Filipino Cannery Worker"!

Probably pay better than this.

I'll be out on the water in my boat...

...and every time I make a set...

...there'll be a floating

nursing home...

...with 500 sons of b*tches and

their cameras capturing the moment.

And what boat is this?

My boat.

You don't have a boat, honey.

Remember?

Oh, yes, I do.

I'm getting it back today.

Would you like some hors d'oeuvres?

Would you like some hors d'oeuvres?

Thank you.

Would you like some hors d'oeuvres?

Nice uniform.

The bride's parents wanted uniforms.

I look stupid.

You look like an angel.

I look like a little white maggot.

- Would you like one?

- Thank you.

How come you don't have to wear one?

This is the unemployed

pulp mill worker's uniform.

Right.

Would you like some hors d'oeuvres?

- No, thanks.

- I'll have one.

You gotta look at the big picture. You

clear-cut the trees, what do you have?

Hundreds of thousands of dollars

worth of timber.

Yeah, but it's ugly.

The point is to try to get the trees

down without spending a fortune.

You're thinking short-term.

My mother told me,

"You don't sh*t in your front yard."

- Your mother said that?

- Constantly.

Look, our people cruise by an island.

They got their binoculars out,

the ones that can still see.

What do we show them?

We show them a little Indian fish camp,

some totem poles maybe.

A black bear foraging for breakfast

in the early morning mist.

We do not show them deforested hillsides

and logging equipment, Phil.

Heavy machinery they see in New Jersey.

The timber industry

has a right to make a living.

We all have to make our living.

I'm not arguing that.

Cut the trees in the Interior.

Turn it into a parking lot.

Just quit with the chain saws when

you get to where people can see.

We're trying to develop themes

for each area up here:

"The Whales' Causeway."

"Island of the Raven People."

"Kingdom of the Salmon."

"Lumberland."

That's us.

That's a turn-of-the-century sawmill

and a gift shop.

That's history, not industry. History

is our future here, not our past.

She looks like a million bucks,

doesn't she?

Beautiful.

Would you like some more?

No, thanks. Could you find the girl

with the shrimp and send her this way?

It's like these kayak outfitters.

I know the jellybean colours are

easy to spot if there's trouble...

...but it spoils the ambience.

C'est la vie, say the old folks

It goes to show you never can tell

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Today is a special day for me. I know

it's a special one for all of you too.

This is my last appearance

with Randy Mason and the Pipeline.

I'll be continuing my run as

a solo performer at the Golden Nugget.

Randy will be rapidly sinking...

...back into the relative obscurity

he so richly deserves.

The time we've spent together has seemed

much longer than it probably was.

And with that in mind, I'd like

to dedicate this next song to him.

Fellas.

Room 16

The Palms Motel

I can rest behind that door

My life with you's become a living hell

Don't wanna live like that no more

And whatever it will take

I will do to make this

Final break

Better off without you

Better off without you

Better off without you

In my life

I'll show up with a lawyer.

You threatening us with a lawyer?

In schools now, when they teach

contracts, you know who they use?

Francine here, that's who.

She wrote the f***ing book!

It's not exactly a textbook, Louise.

I, on the other hand,

am a criminal attorney.

Some of the business practices

you engaged in...

That's bullshit!

You see two dykes wander up here

from Seattle, you figure:

"Here's easy pickings"!

When we bought these properties,

which you'd run into the ground...

That's not true!

When we bought them from you...

...promises were made about plumbing,

about dry rot.

I had a cash-flow situation.

Promises which you didn't keep!

I gave you my boat!

Yes, as collateral.

It's worth more than those repairs.

It's worth relatively little.

We've had it appraised.

I gave you my license.

But, Harmon, the problem is,

we are not fishermen.

Exactly.

So I take my boat, I go out,

I make my limit.

I give you the money.

I get my boat back.

Wait a minute. We paid

the docking fees all winter.

We had the engine overhauled.

And now that there's fish again...

...you think you can waltz in here...

...take our boat, Harmon, our boat,

as if you still owned it?

As if you never defaulted

on any of this?

You're worse than a f***ing bank.

If we let you treat us like this,

what does that say to everybody?

- "Don't take these women seriously."

- You come here.

You bust people's balls...

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John Sayles

John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Passion Fish (1992) and Lone Star (1996). His film Men with Guns (1997) has been nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. His directorial debut, Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980), has been added to the National Film Registry. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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