This quirky indie prod features an ensemble cast including Robert Duvall, Bill Murray, Sissy Spacek, Lucas Black, Gerald McRaney, Bill Cobbs and Lori Beth Edgemon. It was directed by Aaron Schneider and produced by Dean Zanuck.
The film was based on a true story, and provides Duvall with yet another opportunity to shine as an interpreter of offbeat characters. In this case, he plays Felix Bush, a mytserious hermit who has become a victim of the local mythology that’s grown up around him. Outlandish stories have evolved to explain why he’s turned into a recluse. Bush decides to remedy the situation by throwing a funeral for himself, during which he reveals the true reason for his many years of seclusion.
From the Press Kit:
For years, townsfolk have been terrified of the backwoods recluse known as Felix Bush (Robert Duvall). People say he’s done all manner of unspeakable things — that he’s killed in cold blood; that he’s in league with the Devil; that he has strange powers — and they avoid him like the plague. Then, one day, Felix rides to town with a shotgun and a wad of cash, saying he wants to buy a funeral. It’s not your usual funeral for the dead Felix wants. On the contrary, he wants a “living funeral,” in which anyone who ever had heard a story about him will come to tell it, while he takes it all in.
Sensing a big payday in the offing, fast-talking funeral home owner Frank Quinn (Bill Murray) enlists his gentlemanly young apprentice, Buddy Robinson (Lucas Black), to win over Felix’s business. Buddy is no stranger to Felix’s dark reputation, but what he discovers is that behind Felix’s surreal plan lies a very real and long-held secret that must get out. As the funeral approaches, the mystery– which involves the widow Maddie Darrow (Sissy Spacek), the only person in town who ever got close to Felix, and the Illinois preacher Charlie Jackson (Bill Cobbs), who refuses to speak at his former friend’s funeral – only deepens. But on the big day, Felix is in no mood to listen to other people spinning made-up anecdotes about him. This time, he’s the one who is going to do the telling about why he has been hiding out in the woods.
An 8-year labor of love for producer Dean Zanuck (Road to Perdition), Get Low is directed by Aaron Schneider who makes his feature debut after winning the Academy Award® for his short, Two Soldiers, and written by Chris Provenzano (Mad Men) and C. Gaby Mitchell (Blood Diamond). The behind-the-scenes team includes Emmy Award-winning cinematographer David Boyd, A.S.C. (Deadwood), Academy Award®-nominated production designer Geoffrey Kirkland (The Right Stuff, Children Of Men) and twice Oscar®-nominated Costume Designer Julie Weiss (Frida, Twelve Monkeys).
– Zanuck Independent / Sony Pictures Classics
