O'er the Land

In O'er the Land (the title is taken from the last line of the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner”), experimental filmmaker Deborah Stratman meditates on the subject of freedom in the United States in carefully framed set pieces involving 18th-century war re-enactments, a high school football game, an RV sales lot, and more. About halfway through the film, viewers are treated to a description of the bizarre 1959 experience of Air Force Col. William Rankin, who ejected from his fighter plane at 48,000 feet without a pressure suit in the midst of a raging thunderstorm. Tossed about for 45 minutes, Rankin miraculously escaped possible death by freezing, suffocation, and drowning. Following the account of his harrowing fall (which represents a kind of freedom in itself), O'er the Land presents several minutes of footage shot in a peaceful forest, where the calm is shattered by the sounds of automatic weapons firing at an arms fair, after which stealth bombers fly silently overhead, while a group of men happily char the landscape with flamethrowers. Likely to be a bit too surreal for those with conventional documentary tastes, O'er the Land will still find favor with more adventurous viewers. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (J. Whiting)