Krippendorf's Tribe
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| Krippendorf's Tribe | |
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Starring | Richard Dreyfuss Jenna Elfman Natasha Lyonne |
|---|---|
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 27, 1998 (USA) |
| Running time | 113 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Krippendorf's Tribe is a 1998 film adaptation of Frank Parkin's novel directed by Todd Holland.
[edit] Plot summary
Respected anthropologist James Krippendorf (Richard Dreyfuss) and his wife, Jennifer (Barbara Williams), bring their three children along during their much-enjoyed search in New Guinea for a lost tribe. The search fails, despite the family's best efforts. After Jennifer's death, James reaches an academic stagnation back in the U.S., having spent all his foundation grant money raising the children as a single parent. Scheduled to lecture at a college and fearful of being charged with misuse of grant funds, James concocts an imaginary tribe, the Shelmikedmu, using the names of his children as a basis. He later fakes a 16 mm "documentary" film, casting his children as tribe members and superimposing footage of a legitimate New Guinean tribe so as to enhance the illusion. Anthropologist Veronica Micelli (Jenna Elfman) contacts cable-TV producer Henry Spivey (David Ogden Stiers), forcing James to continue creating fraudulent footage as James' rival Ruth Allen (Lily Tomlin) becomes suspicious.
Because James has described to the scientific community a culture unlike any other, the fraud becomes increasingly famous. James himself masquerades as a tribal elder, while his two sons enact increasingly imaginative and startling rituals dreamed up by themselves. Only the eldest child, James' daughter Shelly, refuses to participate due to her disgust at the dishonesty perpetrated by her father.
Taking advantage of her curiosity, James tricks Veronica into participating in his false documentary. When she discovers the truth, she is initially angry, but later helps James continue his fraud, which they intend to bring to a conclusion.
Meanwhile, Ruth Allen travels to New Guinea, discovering there the absence of any tribe in the location specified by James. She transmits the news via telephone to a colleague of hers, who exposes James at a gala. James' imaginative son Mickey, urged by his sister, improvises a lie to this effect; that the Shelmikedmu had deliberately hidden themselves by means of a magical ritual known to them. Unknown to the majority of the characters, Shelly has contacted the New Guineans befriended by her family during the futile search for the lost tribe, urging them to masquerade as the Shelmikedmu in order to disappoint Ruth Allen. The ruse succeeds, and the accusation of fraud abandoned.
James, relieved of his worries, ends his fraud. Because Veronica has become sexually involved with him during her participation in his deceit, she assumes the role of a mother toward the children, though she is not explicitly said to marry James.
[edit] Cast
- Richard Dreyfuss as Prof. James Krippendorf
- Barbara Williams as Prof. Jennifer Harding Krippendorf
- Natasha Lyonne as Shelly Krippendorf
- Gregory Smith as Mickey Krippendorf
- Carl Michael Lindner as Edmund Krippendorf
- Lily Tomlin as Prof. Ruth Allen
- Jenna Elfman as Prof. Veronica Micelli
- Stephen Root as Gerald Adams
- David Ogden Stiers as Henry Spivey
