One Paragraph Movie Review: Louisiana Story

Three hundred and thirty-sixth film: Louisiana Story, a half documentary/half fictionalised bit of weirdness from 1948 financed by Standard Oil Company (now ExxonMobil) and using real Cajun locals and real oil workers as its cast. Set in a Louisiana bayou and told — mostly wordlessly — from a boy’s point of view, it tells the story of a boy who spends most of his time fishing and exploring the swamps with his pet raccoon, until his dad signs a lease agreement with a big oil company. The friendly oil rig workers drag in a massive derrick on a barge, almost come a cropper when they hit a gas pocket that spews gas and salt water for half a mile, but then successfully find oil and share the wealth with the boy’s family. His dad buys the boy a brand new rifle and his missus some shiny cookware, and the oil workers leave the bayou and its wildlife pristine and unharmed. There’s a little side story about an alligator that almost eats the pet raccoon, because of course every movie about a multi-million-dollar oil conglomerate that punches heavy machinery through a heron’s habitat needs a villain. Utterly bizarre. Two spitty chunks of fish bait out of five.