Bright Leaves
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Film: C+
Mockumentaries and Documentaries are more popular than
ever. When Ross McElwee did Sherman’s
March (1985, reviewed elsewhere on this site), it eventually received
raves, but I was not impressed. Now he
is back with a family search story about his supposed roots with Bright
Leaves (2003), which connects his family legacy to the tobacco and all the
death it “leaves” in its way.
Though better made and shot than its popular predecessor, Bright
Leaves becomes a one-joke project and whether it was true or not became
quickly irrelevant. The contradiction
of the beautiful South and the deadly product it produced is obvious and
clichéd. It makes the idea of tobacco
deaths, from harvesting by tortured and terrorized slave labor to the victims
of its use, too much of a joke for its own good. Yet again, a left-of-center work in the (semi-)documentary world
decides to laugh its way through something serious, trivializing it instead of
confronting it. Many critics seemed to
be amused, which just shows how bad film criticism has become in the United
States.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is soft and often tired,
mixing current video footage with older and even better looking film footage
and stills. Nothing memorable here
except the repetition of close shots of interviewees that wears out its welcome
quickly. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
has no surround information and is very standard. Extras include director’s text statement, film notes by Godfrey
Cheshire, notes on Michael Curtiz’s original drama Bright Leaf, text
biographies, five trailers for other First Run DVDs, and additional music by
Paula Larke. These extras do not save
the main feature from itself. Skip this
one unless you will laugh at anything.
- Nicholas Sheffo
