Laura Paglin’s documentary This is Pike County explores life in a rural Southeastern Ohio area after the 2016 Rhoden family murders, with glimpses of other challenges.
There are cursory sketches of people in Piketon, OH. A man doing community service proudly describes his method for cooking meth. A 13-year-old girl ponders getting pregnant. A motel owner describes finding the body of a man who had died by suicide in a bathtub. A community choir sings Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah as a solemn, reverent backdrop to the reading of names of deceased locals. Never mind the fact that the song is about a burning romantic passion, and not a hymn at all. We are given a ground level view of a meeting about radioactive waste disposal from an abandoned uranium enrichment plant, with residents pushing for the waste to be removed, protesting a plan for onsite disposal. None of the people interviewed are named in the credits.
Thirty minutes into This is Pike County, the subject of the 2016 Rhoden family murders is broached, and we learn about the premeditated attacks in four locations near Piketon that left eight people dead. The killers were later revealed to be members of the Wagner family, known to be friends of the Rhodens. The dispute was over custody of a child.
“…explores life in Pike County, Ohio after the 2016 Rhoden family murders…”
Piketon is 100 miles East of Middletown, OH, where J.D. Vance grew up and the culture he wrote about in his book that Ron Howard made into the same-titled film: Hillbilly Elegy. Pike county people are the same as the ones he vilified, and whom he has now turned his back on. It is tempting to see only the backwardness of this culture, and not the positives, as Vance did. Paglin flirts with that same sin. A more balanced view is presented in a book called Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy.
This is Pike County is more respectful than The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia, a documentary that presents poor Appalachians as zoo exhibits. Paglin does miss the chance to consider the context of history, geography, and culture of the region. While nothing here is inaccurate, she never looks beyond the country accents and small town gossip, family drama, legal troubles, and drugs. The closest she gets to showing real sympathy is in the musings of a diner philosopher contemplating existential angst. He is country, but thoughtfully and intelligently asks the big questions.
This documentary spends time covering the radioactive waste issue, the Rhoden family massacre, and glimpses of residents. Any of those subjects could be expanded into a feature length film, but taking them all on results in none of them getting enough attention.
Having grown up in West Virginia, I’m familiar with this area and its people and I know that you must correct for the accents and small town unsophistication to get a real sense of daily life. That said, This is Pike County is an authentic, if incomplete, look at poor people in a flyover region, but there’s much more to the story. This could be called This is Pike County as seen from a fast car with bad brakes.
I can give a qualified recommendation for this film, but you need more context. Read Appalachian Reckoning, then see films like Harlan County, USA, October Sky, Matewan, and Searching for the Wrong Eyed Jesus, for starters. When you’ve learned that poverty is only part of the story, then you are ready for This is Pike County.
Learn more a the This is Pike County official website.
"…respectful..."
