Guessing this is a “treatment” from era 1992. Probably go today with Matthew McConaughey and Amy Adams. Didn’t foresee Koch brothers buying up state legislatures to gerrymander Congress. My bad. No surprise then a lot of vacant land voted for a real estate developer.
DBA BARKER AJAX: THE MOVIE, starring Richard Gere, Julia Roberts, et al.
The Year: 1999.
What is going on?: Over-population, pollution, the USA has just nuked Japan back into the Fifties. The rich live behind moats and forts, millions of homeless nomads wander the interstate highway system, the poor are a third world country right here at home. There’s a Museum of the Middle Class in Washington, D.C. A woman president is stuck with the mess of 22 decades of patriarchy. Rural religious fascists are threatening secession.
Crisis material: The sense that everybody and everything is irrevocably out of control.
Main character: Barker Ajax, unpublished poet and semi-professional philosopher.
Supporting character: an ex-D.E.A. K-9 German Shepherd called “The Gang.” The dog refused to enforce marijuana laws.
Sources of trouble: A complete lack of personal responsibility has resulted in total global social chaos. Environmental, too.
Methods of escape: Writing a mystery novel. Becoming your own hero. The lottery. The occasional bar brawl. Maybe a gun fight.
Ritual/ceremony: Kayaking in remote swamps.
Landmark: Apalachicola. Cedar Key. The back country.
Milieu: Flashbacks to Roseland, which is Portland, Oregon, a few months before the next century.
Buzzword: Survival.
Fashion sense: Black leather and denim and wolf images.
Cultural artifacts: Burglarized books from private homes, dope smoking, totems.
Vehicle: A compact camper van, a tiny bachelor’s apartment on wheels.
Key line: ” A great man does not let himself be known.”
Music: “Time” (The long version) by The Chambers Brothers. Bob Dylan. Golden oldies as satire.
Epiphany: Told to keep on heading down the road, Barker – having entirely intended to do just that – decides to stay and fight the bad guy developers. He refused to let it happen again. Like in Roseland.
Solution: Barker takes matters into his own hands. He goes on a campaign of sabotage against the developers. Barker wins this conflict but there’s more people coming with bulldozers.
Life goes on, whether you go with it or not.
And years later, somebody else has the same idea.
http://www.theonion.com/article/national-museum-of-the-middle-class-opens-in-schau-1244