Skip to main content

Checking out "The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea"

I don't ordinarily talk about or review documentaries here but every now and then one comes along that keeps me thinking about it long after the final credits have rolled.

In this case, I'm talking about Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer's extraordinary and heart-wrenching documentary The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, which has its television premiere next week on the Sundance Channel, after a brief theatrical release. I first saw the documentary over a year ago when it was making the rounds at the festival circuit and couldn't help but fall under its powerful spell.

The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, narrated by John Waters, deals with a chapter in the history of California (and that of America) that most have already forgotten. It charts the rise and ultimate fall of a little man-made desert oasis called the Salton Sea that represents both the hubris of mankind and our ability to forget our failures. It's a touching, funny, and eye-opening look at a forgotten town that is only 50 miles away from the glamour and sheen of Palm Springs, a town hanging onto its last breath by a thread and one that might cease to exist altogether. The documentary is a painful example of a widespread ecological disaster and an almost Lynchian investigation into this weird little town that's fallen off the map and the colorful characters that make up the fabric of this strange place.

Quick history lesson: in 1901, farmers diverted water from the Colorado River for irrigation but the river quickly overflowed. The farmers were stymied until a railroad tycoon intervened and tried to plug the breach, which had caused 6 months of flooding. The result was a man-made sea, comprised of salty run-off from the farms, a 51-mile long sea in the middle of the desert. Over the next few decades, the Salton Sea became a popular tourist destination and in 1951, fish (among them the corvina and tilapia) were brought in. By the 1960s, the Salton Sea was one of THE places to be, a tour destination for the Beach Boys, a vacation home for the wealthy, a popular swimming, fishing, and water-skiing locale.

It was a little like Paradise. That is, until 1976, when the towns on the shores of the Salton Sea flooded again, caused by an excess of farm run-off and two powerful tropical storms. Things never quite recovered. The sea had become excessively salty, to the point where the fish couldn't receive enough oxygen and began to die in large numbers. In 1994, 1.76 million fish died in a single day (see picture above), causing a rotting smell to permeate the area; the fish carcasses turned into protein, which promoted algae bloom, which in turn brought back more fish and the cycle began anew.

The Salton Sea has become a series of little more than ghost towns, old timers looking to cling onto what the town still was and what it might be. (More than a few still believe that the paradise promised by the decades-old hype might be true and the Salton Sea could become a popular destination again.) It's populated by some mightily eccentric individuals: a man building a holy mountain, powered by the word of God; a man who eats the fish out of the sea raw like sashimi; the 91-year-old proprietor of a dying cafe; revolutionaries; single moms trying to raise their kids outside the violence of South Central LA; a Latino land merchant with a penchant for American flag shirts; a brashly outspoken elderly woman who survived a "little cancer problem" and who drives around in a golf cart, cigarette in hand, making scathing remarks about everyone. (Like I said, David Lynch would have a field day here.)

Ultimately, The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea is an eye-opening account of what happens when man tampers with the world around him and a painful (though at times wickedly humorous) look into a group of people who refuse to leave this once-beautiful place. You might call them fiercely stubborn or unwaveringly optimistic; in either case, I can't stop thinking about them and about a place that promised Paradise but now looks nothing less than hell on earth.

"The Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea" premieres June 26th on the Sundance Channel at 9:35 pm.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I happened to see this awhile back and was totally mesmerized. The insane story of the Salton Sea and the people who live there completely sucks you in. It's definitely Lynchian in terms of the off kilter town and the characters who live there. The documentary is both sad and funny, ridiculous and chilling. I highly recommend it!

Popular posts from this blog

What's Done is Done: The Eternal Struggle Between Good and Evil on the Season Finale of "Lost"

Every story begins with thread. It's up to the storyteller to determine just how much they need to parcel out, what pattern they're making, and when to cut it short and tie it off. With last night's penultimate season finale of Lost ("The Incident, Parts One and Two"), written by Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, we began to see the pattern that Lindelof and Cuse have been designing towards the last five seasons of this serpentine series. And it was only fitting that the two-hour finale, which pushes us on the road to the final season of Lost , should begin with thread, a loom, and a tapestry. Would Jack follow through on his plan to detonate the island and therefore reset their lives aboard Oceanic Flight 815 ? Why did Locke want to kill Jacob? What caused The Incident? What was in the box and just what lies in the shadow of the statue? We got the answers to these in a two-hour season finale that didn't quite pack the same emotional wallop of previous season

Pilot Inspektor: CBS' "Smith"

I may just have to change my original "What I'll Be Watching This Fall" post, as I sat down and finally watched CBS' new crime drama Smith this weekend. (What? It's taken me a long time to make my way through the stack of pilot DVDs.) While it's on following Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars on Tuesday nights (10 pm ET/PT, to be exact), I'm going to be sure to leave enough room on my TiVo to make sure that I catch this compelling, amoral drama. While one can't help but be impressed by what might just be the most marquee-friendly cast in primetime--Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Jonny Lee Miller, Amy Smart, Simon Baker, and Franky G all star and Shohreh Aghdashloo has a recurring role--the pilot's premise alone earned major points in my book: it's a crime drama from the point of view of the criminals, who engage in high-stakes heists. But don't be alarmed; it's nothing like NBC's short-lived Heist . Instead, think of it as The Italian

The Daily Beast: "How The Killing Went Wrong"

While the uproar over the U.S. version of The Killing has quieted, the show is still a pale imitation of the Danish series on which it is based. Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "How The Killing Went Wrong," in which I look at how The Killing has handled itself during its second season, and compare it to the stunning and electrifying original Danish series, Forbrydelsen , on which it is based. (I recently watched all 20 episodes of Forbrydelsen over a few evenings.) The original is a mind-blowing and gut-wrenching work of genius. It’s not necessary to rehash the anger that followed in the wake of the conclusion last June of the first season of AMC’s mystery drama The Killing, based on Søren Sveistrup’s landmark Danish show Forbrydelsen, which follows the murder of a schoolgirl and its impact on the people whose lives the investigation touches upon. What followed were irate reviews, burnished with the “burning intensity of 10,000 white-hot suns