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DVD Sherman's March
Filmmaker Ross McElwee turns his cameras inward when his proposed documentary on Northern Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, perhaps the single most hated Union officer in the South, becomes a witty and unexpectedly engaging meditation upon his own ailing love life. As McElwee retraces Sherman's 19th-century march through the South, where his blazing trail left smoking ruins of Georgia's cities and towns in his wake, he can't seem to help but train his camera on a succession of Southern women he meets along the way, using the documentary as a sly method of meeting girls. (Aspiring filmmakers take note: it works surprisingly well.) Sherman's March evolves into an introspective meditation on love, happiness, the fear of nuclear holocaust, and the meaning of life. McElwee's light touch and relaxed, deadpan offscreen narration gives this genial documentary tour of his soul a rare kind of insight. --Sean Axmaker
A documentary exploration of Southern mating rituals
Ostensibly Ross McElwee went South to make a documentary tracing the path of General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march across Georgia during the Civil War. But McElwee is distracted by his recurring dreams of nuclear holocaust (and Burt Reynolds) and so instead of ruined plantations or other such reminders of the Union general's scorched earth policy, McElwee turned his camera on the Southern women he encountered. This 1987 documentary's subtitle gives us a much better indication of this film's focus: "A Mediation on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation." Whatever its humble origins, "Sherman's March" is a fascinating examination of contemporary mating rituals in the South. Without much apparent effort on his part, McElwee encounters a collection of fascinating characters with some unforgettable stories that are superior to what you find in most "real" films. Once again we realize that basically everybody has at least one good story to tell, a point realized by CBS news which currently has an ongoing human interest series where the reporter picks a name at random from a phone book and then heads off to find out what story that person has to tell. McElwee's documentary proves you cannot go wrong doing so. This film also gives much hope to every gawkish young man who can get his hands on a camera as a way of meeting young women.
An absolute original......
I was glad to finally locate this underground classic, and it was worth the wait. While most documentaries take few risks and present talking heads, Ross McElwee dares to tell a subjective, off-the-wall story of loneliness and love, using Sherman's March to the Sea as an outline. Funny, insightful, and full of rich characterizations (except these people are the real deal), this film needs to be seen by a new generation of film lovers. Despite its 2 1/2 hour length, it is brisk and I must say, I was NEVER bored. Quite simply, a brilliant charmer.
quiet clarity
Ignore those who don't get Ross's schtick. It's transfixing. Ross's stream of conscious commentary on his life as it unfolds in front of his camera lens has a rare clarity and simple unaffected profoundness.
The Fog of War, the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers. The Fog of War has the usual inexorable... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John F. Kennedy - Robert McNamara - Richard Nixon DVD Release Date: Released the 11 May 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Consistently cited by critics worldwide as one of the greatest films ever made, Jean Renoir's bittersweet drama of life, love, class, and the social code of manners and behavior ("the rules of the game") is a savage critique undertaken with sensitivity and compassion. Renoir's catch-phrase through the film, "Everyone has their reasons," develops a multilayered meaning by the conclusion. A young aviator (Roland Toutain) commits a serious social faux pas by alluding to an affair on national radio. To avert a scandal, the cultured Robert de la Chesnaye (Marcel Dalio), husband to the aviator's mistress, Christine (Nora Gregor), and a philanderer in his own right, invites all to a weekend hunting party in his country mansion. The complicated maze of marriages and mistresses (social register... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Nora Gregor - Marcel Dalio Director(s): Jean Renoir DVD Release Date: Released the 20 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A Sundance Grand Jury prize winner and a true conversation starter, Capturing the Friedmans travels into one apparently ordinary Long Island family's heart of darkness. Arnold and Elaine Friedman had a normal life with their three sons until Arnold was arrested on multiple (and increasingly lurid) charges of child abuse. Because the Friedmans had documented their own lives with copious home movies, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki is able to sift through their material looking for clues. Yet what emerges is more surreal than fiction: the youngest Friedman son went to jail, the eldest became a birthday-party clown. In the end, we can't be sure whether Arnold Friedman is a monstrous child molester or the victim of railroading. The portrait of a disconnected family is deeply disturbing,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Arnold Friedman (II) - Elaine Friedman - David Friedman (IX) - Jesse Friedman (II) Director(s): Andrew Jarecki DVD Release Date: Released the 27 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction, and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp!) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Shari Springer Berman - Paul Giamatti - Harvey Pekar Director(s): Robert Pulcini - Shari Springer Berman DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Providing a unique opportunity for the appreciation of Yasujiro Ozu's signature style, Criterion's definitive double-feature of A Story of Floating Weeds (1934) and Floating Weeds (1959) demonstrates the evolution of a master. Drawing inspiration from the now-obscure 1928 American carnival-troupe drama The Barker, Ozu first made A Story of Floating Weeds as a silent film (despite the advent of sound by that time), and Criterion's DVD features a sublime, newly recorded original score that sounds and feels like it's been part of the film all along. The film itself concerns a traveling Kabuki troupe faced with dramatic revelations as they perform in a rural village: Their master has had a son from a former lover whom he is visiting for the first time in a dozen... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Yasujiro Ozu DVD Release Date: Released the 20 April 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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