Contrasting Western images: A lone cowboy on
horseback rides through the recently paved streets of a new,
cheerily painted subdivision, while a voice laments that the West
is becoming a place an old-timer might not recognize anymore.
That’s how the documentary, Subdivide and Conquer: A
Modern Western, begins. It takes a sobering look at the
new West, once “the dreamscape of the American mystique,” now a
region afflicted by cookie-cutter subdivisions, ranchettes and
monster homes.
Narrated by actor Dennis Weaver
and punctuated by a quirky sound track that includes “Home on the
Range” and the Lone Ranger theme, the film follows the path of
sprawl and its accompanying costs. The suburbanizing trend boomed
after World War II, when resources were shifted from military needs
to cars and home-building products, and President Eisenhower’s
interstate highway system offered Americans easy access to the
country. To this day, sprawl is aided by unchanged government
policies, hidden subsidies, and zoning codes from the 1950s that
favor single-family homes.
The film also
suggests standard remedies, such as better land-use planning and
transportation systems, and highlights groups and municipalities
that are approaching the problem in unique
ways.
Subdivide and Conquer,
produced and directed by Jeff Gersh of Red Oak Films and Chelsea
Congdon of First Light Films, is intended for audiences from middle
school to adult. It will air on public television stations
beginning in May, and can be rented from Bullfrog Films,
800/543-3764.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Oh, give me a home….
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