SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Expected more

Better Late Then Never

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

One of the main themes of the film supported through its editing is on the importance of preserving the past. After compiling a multitude of footage ranging over a fifty year time period, director Ross McElwee seeks to reconnect to his family ancestry by researching the elusive life of his tobacco-selling great-grandfather. The significance of preserving this past will help teach his son, as well as the viewer, of the harmful effects of tobacco cigarettes. Through careful and effective editing techniques, the message of this preservation is brought to the viewer's attention. To begin with, McElwee's surreal voice-over seems to sedate the viewer, causing them to feel a glimpse of the dreamy and forgotten life of his great-grandfather, John McElwee.He also carefully selects what footage would best compliment the narration and theme of the piece. One example of this is illustrated through the multiple interviews he captures of those who have and are still struggling with the fight against nicotine addiction. His hopes of obtaining and preserving these interviews will hopefully cause his son to steer clear from the illusory vice of cigarettes. By interweaving various stock recording's of his son growing up, he speaks of his desire to one day infuse in him the importance of learning more about his ancestors. He understands that the film itself is already a work of history and later describes that his son will hopefully look upon the film with fondness, as well as a tool for education.During a party sequence, McElwee compares filming a movie to smoking a cigarette. He juxtaposes the concept of preservation stillness caught through the eye of the camera lens, with the transient nicotine stillness obtained through the inhalation of cigarettes. The stillness obtained through both is something he hopes his son will see the truth in—the former being permanent; the latter being temporary. Lastly, the music he incorporates to support the theme is also edited effectively. He ironically contrasts a group of farmers singing church hymns with fields of tobacco being harvested right outside their church—suggesting, of course, that there is something hypocritical there to be recognized.

I was fascinated as to how truly bad this movie was. Was the viewer supposed to learn something, or reflect on anything here? What was up with the pumpkins? Was I supposed to be impressed with the motel shots? Does it matter that there are some garbage bags on a rooftop across the street of a hotel? Why does the narrator unsuccessfully mock the people he interviews (it is so obvious that he edited out the really informative parts of his interviews to achieve mockery). The best part of the movie was the interview with the film professor who tells us how bad this movie will be even before it is finished.I am truly amazed. I believe that the creator is struggling to become an intellectual or is trying to impress the intellectual community.

The author sets out on a "journey of discovery" of his "roots" in the southern tobacco industry because he believes that the (completely and deservedly forgotten) movie "Bright Leaf" is about an ancestor of his. Its not, and he in fact discovers nothing of even mild interest in this absolutely silly and self-indulgent glorified home movie, suitable for screening at (the director's) drunken family reunions but certainly not for commercial - or even non-commercial release. A good reminder of why most independent films are not picked up by major studios - because they are boring, irrelevant and of no interest to anyone but the director and his/her immediate circles. Avoid at all costs!

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?