Crew discusses film at Rex

This last weekend the Rex Theater in Thompson Falls held a special showing of the film Somewhere in Montana that was attended by writer and director Brandon Smith, Smith’s wife and costume director Judy Smith, and camera crew member Harrison Gayton.

The movie, shot entirely in Lake County, tells the story of struggling ranch owner John Alexander and his daughter as they try to make ends meet by letting a Hollywood movie production team shoot their movie about early women homesteaders in Montana on his ranch. From the start of the film, John is reluctant to let the crew use his ranch as the location of their movie but is encouraged by his daughter, Laney Alexander, to at least give it a try, as they are quickly running out of options as the threat of being forced to sell the family ranch looms overhead.

John Alexander (played by Graham McTavish) is a character that any long-time resident is familiar with and more than likely can think of someone they know who fits his description. John is a generational Montana rancher who, in his own words, describes himself as a “white, conservative, Christian.” Brandon Smith says he came up with the idea for the character while attending a 4-H event in Ronan.

“While I was at this 4-H event in Ronan, I saw this rancher with callused hands. While looking at his hands, I started to think about how everything this man’s family has come from this man’s hands. Everything they own, built, and eat was created by these hands,” said Brandon Smith during the Q&A after the film's screening. “So I did a character study to build a character around this idea, and then we designed a character that was his total opposite.”

The complete opposite character that Smith came up with is Fabian Verdugo, played by Matt Drago. Fabian, a well-known Hollywood director, immediately butts heads with John from their very first meeting. The conflict between these two characters is one that long-time Montana residents and newcomers are most likely familiar with. John feels that Fabian, along with others coming to Montana, are threatening his way of life and want to replace it with the way they believe things should be done, while Fabian sees John as a part of America’s past that is at conflict with his ideas of what progress should look like.

“After we created these two characters, we had to create a situation that forced these two to interact, and then we wanted to see how we could get them out of it,” said director Brandon Smith.

As the conflict between John and Fabian progresses, the two start to come to terms with the fact that they will need to find a way to get past their issues if they hope to get through the situation they’ve found themselves in. As the film continues, there are a series of events that force the two to realize that while they may not agree on many issues, that doesn’t mean that they are really all that different.