pruiett I lived in Florida a good part of my life and traveled to areas like Vernon. I had "country boy" friends in these areas, people I truly enjoyed visiting. They had time for life and time for others. I once came into Perry, Florida to see a preacher friend, but did not know where he lived. I stopped in the first church I came to and asked if they knew him. I was motioned into the pastor's office, where the senior pastor was seated in camos sharpening hunting knives. He got on the phone to my friend (who pastored another church a few miles away) and said, "Boy! Got folks here lookin' for you."After supper as we were getting into our van to go to Wednesday prayer meeting, one of his goats jumped in and sat proudly on my velour seat. My friend said, "Yep . . . She'll load up on ye."So, this documentary is true to life in slower rural areas. The folks seem funny, only because we are used to our fast-paced and so called "intelligent" suburban lives. In the final analysis, who ends the game happier, he who took time to live, or he who lived wishing he had found time?

Michael_Elliott Vernon, Florida (1981)*** (out of 4) Errol Morris' second features takes a look at some of the strange folks living in Vernon, Florida. From what I've read originally Morris went to this town due to its high insurance fraud rate but once there he decided to put his camera on the people. We meet people including a turkey hunter who does nothing but talk turkey (wonder if the shrimp from FORREST GUMP was inspired by this guy), an old man and his "pets," a policeman who sits and waits for speeders while then admitting he doesn't have his radar gun because it's at the shop and several other locales. I'd read several reviews that attacked this movie for being mean-spirited but I didn't find that to be the case at all. Something like GREY GARDENS had me questioning if the only reason the filmmakers were filming the subject were to show how crazy they were. Morris here doesn't fall into the same feeling. I thought going into the picture that it was going to be exploiting this somewhat backwoods folks but that wasn't the case at all. It really does seem as if Morris is interested in what these people have to say about their passions and just lets them go on talking. This is especially true for the turkey hunter who goes through just about every avenue in regards to hunting. I can't say I've ever hunted a turkey but after listening to this guy I really do believe I could go out and do it on my own and know what I was doing. Even the old man with his pets gets confused about what he's talking about but not once did I ever get the impression that Morris was laughing at him or showing the old man to embarrass him. Perhaps others will see this differently but I found the stories here to be entertaining and they kept me involved, although I will admit I'm not sure why they did.

Roger Burke How many times have you driven through a small town and briefly caught the looks of the locals as you drove by, perhaps thinking about their lives – seemingly static – just as they were probably thinking about yours – moving too fast, perhaps?This is a film where Errol Morris lets you get out of your auto, so to speak, just to find out what those locals are indeed thinking about. It could be Any Town, Any State, Any Country but, for reasons unknown to me, Morris chose to get out at Vernon, Florida which, according to my Google maps, is about thirty miles due north of Panama City, just south of I10 – for those who like to know where they are all the time...Nobody, however, does documentaries quiet like Morris: stop the car, set up the camera, ask one of the local locals to talk, roll sound, roll camera, action – and say nothing to distract the viewer from what is being said. That's about as close to actual cinema verite as you're ever likely to get. That's Morris's trademark technique, which is its strength as well as its weakness – in a sense.Its strength because, as the viewer, you gain a totally uninterrupted (except for necessary editing) slice of humanity, uncluttered by any considerations other than to let that person talk. And, talk they do, providing a near voyeuristic insight into the rural mentality and psychology of part of America's deep south – something you'd never get, probably, if you'd just stopped off there one day to get directions to I10, or somewhere else. Often, some locals don't like to talk to foreigners, do they now? Well, here's your chance...Its weakness because Morris has obviously made a choice about who to put on film; he didn't simply set up the camera and then wait for people to sidle up to say their piece and then exit stage left. No – the locals he did choose (maybe they chose him also?) had something interesting to say, and they all said it well. To that extent, they all became 'actors', but no more than we are all actors in the story of our own life. The core of their beliefs shine through, however, from the guy who hunts wild turkey, to the pastor who provides a semantic dissertation on the word 'therefore', to the old man who keeps wild animals in his pen, and to the local cop who sits, most days, in his patrol car, waiting, waiting and waiting...The camera work is, as indicated, composed of many long, static takes for each interviewee; in all, there are six or seven characters, most of whom appear as individuals. Once, however, Morris has three old men discussing the bizarre facts about a suicide by a fourth person, and quietly arguing about the exact method the deceased used. Such candor is rarely seen or heard. The turkey hunter has the most screen time, perhaps because he is the most articulate, has fascinating details about turkey shoots and allows us to hear, at length, the languid silence of the Florida wetlands. The final scene, where Morris uses the only moving frame in the film, has that hunter watching the buzzards nest in the trees for the night, as the sun goes down – and wishing they were turkeys. City dwellers: eat your heart out...Truth is always better than fiction, and definitely stranger. You'll certainly laugh, you'll maybe cringe a bit, you'll smile often, and you might even feel sorry for some of these people who are, in the final analysis, no less than we are. And, no more.Highly recommended for all.

Crap_Connoisseur This is a surprise, a documentary about weird, old people in Florida that manages to be both amusing and insightful. The film is very simply a collection of anecdotes from Vernon's eccentric elderly residents about their hobbies and in the case of the bored policeman, his job.Errol Morris, surely one of the best documentary filmmakers of recent times, wisely chooses to let his subjects do the talking. There is no Michael Moore grandstanding and no pompous voice-over. The result is refreshing as it allows the viewer to come to their own conclusion about the interviewees without having someone's personal agenda shoved down your throat. Personally, I think these old coots are awesome. They have all found different ways to bring happiness and meaning to their twilight years, whether it be shooting turkeys, farming worms or looking after stray animals. While the gobbler hunter provides most of the laughs with his amazing anecdotes and wall of turkey feet, the highlight for me was the priest and his sermon.Vernon, Florida is a beautifully filmed documentary that stands up incredibly well 25 years after it was made. This is highly recommended.