Filmmaker Robinson Devor returns to a bizarre moment in American history in his latest documentary, 'Suburban Fury'. The film revisits the story of Sara Jane Moore, a seemingly average suburban mother who made a failed assassination attempt on President Gerald Ford, almost 50 years after the incident.
The film provides an intensely personal testimony of Moore, captured through archival footage and exclusive interviews conducted with her after her release in 2007 after serving more than thirty years in prison. As the film unfurls, viewers witness the transformation of an ordinary woman into an FBI informant and subsequently, a would-be assassin.
Moore requested that she be the sole interviewee for the project and the storyline, mostly recounting her political evolution, is fraught with narrative disparities. Moore’s dodgy storytelling is echoed in Devor’s treatment of the subject, delivered through contrasting sequences of factual recollections and abrupt insistences on minor details.
The documentary is organized as a series of vignettes, aptly underscored by Moore’s retelling. The gripping narrative, although challenging to decode, is delivered through a combination of suspenseful long shots, reminiscent of Francis Ford Coppola’s 'The Conversation', and a structuring technique that delivers the story in ascending and then descending order emulating a countdown to the infamous assassination attempt.
Even as she spellbinds with her vivid anecdotes, Moore seems averse to divulging too many personal details. She shares some elements of her early life but refrains from offering a comprehensive biography. Her story becomes particularly convoluted when she articulates her transition from FBI informant to radical activist.
Devor masterfully captures Moore’s simmering anger and her disillusionment with the American political system at the time. Through her narrative, as well as through period footage and historical documents, the film underscores the socio-political turbulence of the 1970s, marked by Watergate, the Vietnam war, racial tension, and a widespread mistrust of the government.
'Suburban Fury' delves into the paradoxical persona of Sara Jane Moore, juxtaposing her narrative with that of the chaotic times she lived in. With its pulsating archive energy and the suspense of a questionable narrator, Devor’s film finds its raison d'être in this demarcated tension-filled space.
