Rating summary
Movie | | 4.5 |
Video | | 4.5 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 3.0 |
Overall | | 4.0 |
The Overnighters Blu-ray Movie Review
Do Unto Others
Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 31, 2015
The Overnighters tells a story so likely to provoke strong reactions that it feels like a script
someone dreamed up to create controversy. But the story happens to be true, and it was certainly
controversial in the small North Dakota town where it unfolded amidst sweeping changes
comparable to an old-fashioned gold rush, except that this transformation was wrought by oil. As
development of the state's shale deposits caused an explosion of jobs and opportunity, the sleepy
prairie community of Williston became a boom town. As much as residents were glad for the
prosperity, many felt they'd lost their home to invaders, of whom the most visible were often the
job seekers pouring in daily by the hundreds, often with little to sustain them.
Jesse Moss, a documentary filmmaker whose previous works include Con Man and Full Battle
Rattle, was fascinated by the idea that a "boom town" could exist in modern times, having only
read about them in history books. After seeing a column in the Williston Herald by a local
clergyman urging the townspeople to open their arms to the influx of new people flowing into
town, Moss went to Williston with his camera to meet the author of the column, Pastor Jay
Reinke of the Concordia Lutheran Church. Moss ended up staying for eighteen months, blending
into the population of job seekers, many of them broke, desperate and seeking a second chance in
the drilling fields in and around Williston. What Moss discovered and recorded was an explosive
nexus of some of the knottiest issues facing America today, the kind guaranteed to polarize
conversation and set people in opposition, including poverty, joblessness, safety nets,
Christianity and the right of a community to secure its borders.
As if all of that weren't enough, Moss's film developed what, in Hollywood terms, might be
called a "third act twist" that adds new layers of complexity to an already challenging tale. But
because this is real life instead of fiction, this turn of events can't really be called a "twist". What
The Overnighters confirms is that you never know how things will turn out, because people are
full of surprises.
Williston is located in the southern region of North Dakota on the edge of what is known as the
Bakken formation, a productive and lucrative region for extracting oil by hydraulic "fracking".
As fracking operations expanded, demand for labor quickly caused rents in the sparsely
populated area to soar beyond the means of many newly arrived applicants, especially those who left
their homes seeking a fresh start. Pastor Reinke, believing it to be his Christian duty to help those
in need, began to allow some of these temporarily homeless individuals to sleep in their vehicles
in the church parking lot. He let others who did not own vehicles bunk in the church while they
were looking for work. As word spread that Concordia Lutheran was a shelter of last resort,
Reinke found himself providing temporary home to as many as a hundred men, and sometimes
their families as well. This revolving-door group came to be known as "the overnighters".
Moss's camera follows Reinke as the pastor tries to manage the logistics of the ever-expanding
task he has assumed. Reinke establishes an intake procedure and rules for those staying at the
church. Some people are turned away after a background check, others because it is clear that
they cannot function in a group situation. (In one interview, the person is obviously suffering from
the effects of prolonged substance abuse, and you can tell from Reinke's face that the man will not
be allowed to stay.) Eventually Reinke acquires an assistant in Alan Mezo, who began as an
overnighter and says that he found both purpose and redemption when he saw what the pastor
was doing. Instead of continuing to seek work in the oil fields, Alan remained to assist Reinke.
Even with the santuary provided by Reinke, many of the overnighters still struggle. Some have
criminal records that limit their job prospects. Others, like Keegan Edwards, find that the family
they expected to stay with them cannot abide the loneliness of a new home in a small and
isolated town. Others simply give up and leave.
Meanwhile, Reinke and Concordia Lutheran have become a focal point for the Williston
citizenry's anxiety about the changes in their town. A galvanizing event is the murder of a local
schoolteacher by two drifters, who, as far as many citizens are concerned, are no different from
the overnighters. Regular members of Concordia Lutheran begin protesting their pastor's
activities; others simply leave and join a different church. A city ordinance is proposed that
would limit the use of RVs as sleeping quarters, including in the church's parking lot. As Reinke
leaves a city council meeting where he has spoken against this proposed law, he is ambushed by
a reporter asking whether any of the overnighters currently residing at his church are registered
sex offenders and, if so, whether he has notified local residents. Visibly shaken by the
experience, Reinke tells Moss that he fears he will lose his ministry.
In fact, Reinke has a registered sex offender living in his basement, with the full knowledge and
approval of his wife and children. Keith Graves is the kind of offender whose presence on the
registry raises questions about its fairness; convicted of statutory rape at 18 for consensual sex
with his 16-year-old girlfriend, he is now branded for life. Reinke and his family realize that,
once the media report the story, they will distort and misrepresent the origins and principles of
the overnighter program. Although the family remains united in its perseverance, the strain
begins to show, especially on Reinke. His normally cheerful demeanor becomes tense. Working
relationships suffer, which is already an occupational hazard among a transient population. One
of the saddest scenes in
The Overnighters depicts the aftermath of a rift between Reinke and his
former assistant, Alan Mezo, after Mezo is forced to leave the program in light of the intensified
scrutiny.
Despite its good intentions and unimpeachable Christian logic, the overnighters program faced
too many practical obstacles and too many ingrained prejudices ever to succeed. Eventually, the
city authorities forced Reinke to shut it down—but that isn't the end of the story.
The Overnighters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Director Moss was the one-man crew for The Overnighters, and he shot all the footage himself,
with the exception of a few small inserts he obtained from a news outlet. The make of digital camera is
not specified, but the results suggest professional equipment. The image on Drafthouse's 1080p,
AVC-encoded Blu-ray displays excellent detail, clarity and color, consistent with a first-rate
HDTV broadcast. There is no obvious noise or interference, and the only limitations of the image
are those imposed by natural light. Perhaps the highest praise one can offer of this video
presentation is that it provides transparency between the viewer and the subjects of Moss's
documentary. Their appearance, clothing, expressions and surroundings look as real as they must
have appeared when Moss was there filming them.
Drafthouse has mastered The Overnighters with an average bitrate of 31.988 Mbps, which is
excellent. Other studios might have been tempted to compress the film to half this rate because of
the digital origination, and the result would no doubt have been adequate. At this bitrate,
however, they are stellar.
The Overnighters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
The Overnighters has a 5.1 soundtrack encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, but like most
documentaries the emphasis is on the voices in front. The 5.1 format allows breathing room for
the moody but spare score by T. Griffin, a prolific composer for documentaries.
The Overnighters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Commentary with Director Jesse Moss and Jay Reinke: This joint commentary
between the documentary's writer, director and co-producer, on the one hand, and its
central figure, on the other, has the virtue of filling in important background information
concerning individual scenes and people. Moss has so effectively rendered himself
invisible in the finished product that it is helpful to hear about how he inserted himself
into the Concordia Lutheran Church. The downside of having the two men speak together
is that we don't hear enough from Moss; Reinke does much of the talking, and he already
has an entire film, plus the "Interview Update" below, to tell his story. Except for the
"Director's Statement" in the enclosed booklet, we never get to hear Moss's independent
perspective.
- Interview Update with Jay Reinke (1080p; 1.78:1; 23:50): Interviewed six months after
the concluding events of the film, Reinke reports on developments in Williston and in his
own life.
- Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1; 15:19): A "play all" option is included.
- Welcome to Williston
- Jesus Didn't Have Our Neighbors Extended Scene
- I Used to Stay Here
- Our Williston Penthouse
- Williston Shower
- Trailers
- Booklet: Drafthouse's booklet includes a two-page "Director's Statement" by Moss, a
series of haunting portraits of some of the overnighters by photographer Drew Ludwig
(with an introductory statement by Ludwig), a picture of Concordia Lutheran, plus film
and disc credits.
The Overnighters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
The Overnighters has been compared to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and it certainly
echoes that landmark work in its depiction of hope and despair during a period of sweeping
economic dislocation. As a sociological portrait of a time in America when one part of the
economy soared, while others remained stagnant, the film is an essential document. But it also
poses difficult and maybe unanswerable questions about the logistics of charity in the face of
practical obstacles. Pastor Reinke's experiment was so noble in its aspirations, so apparently
well-designed in its execution, and yet so ultimately disastrous in its outcome, that it could
become a fertile topic for Christian study groups everywhere. Religion aside, you will not find a
more compelling human drama in any recent film. Highly recommended.