Boom. There's Henry Fonda—the 12 Angry Men saint, the Grapes of Wrath proletarian hero—dropping a grenade in his 1981 interview: “I'm more of a radical, a rebel, most of the time politically.” Cue the record scratch. This isn't your grandpa's Fonda. And Henry Fonda for President, the new 3-hour essay doc from Austrian filmmaker Alexander Horwath, sure as hell isn't another Behind the Music snoozefest. It's a road trip through America's id, with Fonda's ghost as your anarchic tour guide.
Argument: Why This Doc Defies the Algorithm
Hollywood loves a tidy legacy—preferably one that fits on a lunchbox. But Horwath's film, like Fonda's politics, refuses to behave. Structurally, it's a Frankenstein's monster of:
- Found footage (news reels, Fonda's final interview, The Ox-Bow Incident clips)
- Landscape cinematography (a literal drive from Fonda, NY to the Pacific)
- Cultural autoposy (1651 to Reaganomics, because why not?)
Think Ken Burns on absinthe, or Adam Curtis with a cowboy hat. The trailer's stark cuts—Fonda's face morphing into protest marches, Nixon's resignation playing over Young Mr. Lincoln—scream one thing: This isn't nostalgia. It's a reckoning.
Deep Dive: The Foreigner's Gaze That America Needs
Horwath, an Austrian film scholar, follows the tradition of outsider critics (de Tocqueville, Baudrillard) who see the U.S. clearer than its own mythmakers. His thesis? Fonda's career—from The Grapes of Wrath's socialist rage to On Golden Pond's boomer melancholy—mirrors America's unresolved tensions: justice vs. hypocrisy, rebellion vs. complacency.
Key Moments in the Trailer:
- Fonda's 1981 lament: “We've lost the ability to be shocked.” (Cut to 2020s news footage. Ouch.)
- A chilling montage of his villain roles (Once Upon a Time in the West's Frank), weaponizing his “all-American” face against itself.
Closer: Who's This For?
If you think docs are Wikipedia with a Ken Burns voiceover, run. But if you want a film that treats history like a drunken bar debate—equal parts Cassavetes, Chomsky, and Curb Your Enthusiasm—this is your manifesto.
“The U.S. doesn't need another hero. It needs Henry Fonda's ghost, asking: ‘Whose side were you on?'”
