In what is certainly going to be one of the odder stories you hear about today, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the United States Department of Agriculture has recently started using audio from the Netflix original movie Marriage Story (as well as other notable audio clips) to scare off wolves and protect cattle. Specifically, they are using one of the movie’s most memorable scenes — an intense argument between a husband and wife in the middle of a divorce played by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson.
The Marriage Story scene sees Driver’s Charlie and Johansson’s Nicole scream at each other and features lines like “You’ll never be happy!” and “Every day I wake up and hope you’re dead!” The reasoning behind the USDA’s choosing this clip, per the WSJ, “humans are bad” (it appears to be working too).
This is undoubtedly a clever and funny solution by those at the USDA, but it does warrant mentioning that this scene, while undoubtedly the most famous from Marriage Story (it had previously been made into plenty of memes shortly after the movie’s release), is just one snippet of a pretty great movie, and we shouldn’t forget that.
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story was released in 2019 and chronicled the rough divorce proceedings of a theater director and his actress wife. In addition to Driver and Johansson, the movie stars Laura Dern, Ray Liotta, Alan Alda, Julia Hagerty and Azhy Robertson. The movie was nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Driver), Best Actress (Johansson), Best Supporting Actress (Dern), Best Original Screenplay and Best Score, winning for Best Supporting Actress.
Critics loved it too, with Marriage Story being “Certified Fresh” with an impressive 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and a permanent fixture on WTW’s list of best Netflix movies.
Marriage Story is some of the best work by all involved, as it shows the complex emotions of why a marriage may end and the aftermath as they try to figure out how to navigate their new reality, made all the more difficult with them sharing a kid. Scenes like the fight will put you through the emotional ringer, but there are also moments of sincerity and levity that remind you of the love that was once there and is at times still there.
Because Marriage Story has never left Netflix, it can often get buried under the slew of new Netflix original movies and TV shows (recent examples include Happy Gilmore 2, My Oxford Year and, this week, Wednesday season 2). Marriage Story isn’t typically popping up in the Top 10 because there hasn’t been anything new about it to grab subscribers attention.
Maybe this USDA story will change that and give Marriage Story some new life on Netflix. Wolves may not like it, but Marriage Story is a wonderfully performed, powerful human story that deserves to be recalled as the great movie that it is.
Stream Marriage Story exclusively on Netflix (subscription required). Get a preview of the movie by watching the trailer right here:
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