sol-
Inspired by Gary Cooper's character in a movie about the tobacco trade which he believes is based on his great-grandfather, 'Sherman's March' documentarian Ross McElwee tries to make a documentary about the rampant tobacco industry in North Carolina here. As anyone who has seen 'Sherman's March' would know, McElwee (much like Nick Broomfield) has a tendency to make his documentaries equally about himself researching a subject as the subject itself and the highlight of 'Bright Leaves' is McElwee's obsession with the Cooper movie - a film he has watched so many times that he has memorised every subtle hand movement. The film's single best part is an interview with Bosnian film director Vlada Petric who carts McElwee around on a wheelbarrow in order to make McElwee's film more "kinesthetic". Petric hits some nails quite sharply on the head in terms how overly complex McElwee's project is and 'Bright Leaves' therefore really becomes about McElwee's persistence more than anything else. On the downside, this leads to the film being very light on tobacco related content; whereas in 'Sherman's March', one really discovered some things about General Sherman as well as McElwee, the same cannot really be said here. Still, it is a commendable effort and arguably more intriguing than a straightforward tobacco documentary would have been.
dj_bassett
It's deceptive to say what the movie's "about", although you might sum it up something like "a meditation on the metaphorical connections between the dangers and allure of smoking and the dangers and allure of documentary film-making". Though that's not quite it. McElwee's film is best experienced, rather than talked about, as the delights are in the details: Patricia Neal advising a fan on how to use her camera; McElwee park, a rather sad looking field with a couple of benches (McElwee actually sits in one, a rare moment when he's on screen himself); footage of McElwee's father in a yamaka, while McElwee wonders aloud why his dad, a staunch Presbyterian, was wearing a yamaka; a couple that keeps vowing to quit smoking and keeps breaking the vow. Etc. The movie rambles about, sometimes with only a very vague connection to the ostensible theme of "tobacco in the South", but that's it's charm -- it's like a filmic version of literary miscellany. Highly recommended.
timgee
A sensitive treatment of the complex relationship between people, economics and a health hazard; it gives an accurate shapshot of the region (tobacco road), its views, the concerns of its people. The locations are real. The people are real. The accents are real. View this film and you are home.Ross McElwee consistently entertains us with his unique sense of humor as he explores the possible connections between his great grandfather and the main character in Foster FitzSimons' novel "Bright Leaf." Anyone who is a lover of movies, history, and appreciates a good yarn will enjoy this film. If you are interested in the South, this film, along with McElwee's classic "Sherman's March," will give you significant insights into this region.
p-leentfaar
A documentary full of selfpity in which the director gives us a look in his family history and their connection to the tobacco industry. It has it's funny moments but tends to drag a little. It helps if you've seen BRIGHT LEAF by Michael Curtiz, but how many people have?
AD
