Eli Jr., directed his own screenplay;
getting an A-list cast together
& shooting in and around Hollywood,
but mostly in the woods surrounding
his family's house; his peers,
unlikely to ever see the film,
he felt free to indulge in gross
exaggeration & stereotypes so broad
it came across as science-fiction:
the tale of the last surviving
Amish in a dystopian world
without working technology;
everything broken or disconnected,
shorted or simply smashed
to pieces; a young tribe must
make their way from the decimated
fields of their native Lancaster
across the blighted terrain
to a legendary New Lancaster
wherever that may be;
without the use of electricity
of any kind...

'What' was a hit ... audiences
walking out mumbling to one another;
the sci-fi epic predicated
on sticks & stones with no motors
of any kind besides wooden
wheels & abundant amounts
of versatile hemp;
led by the intrepid Thaddeus
Stevens, paragon of Amish youth,
they blaze a trail to the new
western frontier...

'What' a film by Eli Simple Junior