To me, this movie is perfection.

not horrible nor great

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

If Jacques Tati had ever made a documentary it might have looked something like this: an inconsequential but humorous look at life in a community so far off the beaten track (on the Florida panhandle, some 90 miles west of Tallahassee) that the town's only law enforcement officer sits bored in his patrol car hour after hour, waiting to cite the occasional speeder. Director Errol Morris's strategy is simple: keep the camera rolling, and don't interrupt. The result is an oddly skewed but still endearing portrait of back-roads America, shot in grainy 16mm and rambling on for about sixty minutes before arriving at an abrupt non-ending. Among the town's more-or-less typical citizens (from a population of 885 at the time) are a worm farmer, an elderly couple with a jar of what they believe is radioactive sand, and a hunter in camouflage fatigues tracking wild turkey with the life-or-death conviction of Hemingway on safari.

Errol Morris's 1982 documentary Vernon, Florida, is rife with a great backstory; one that is interesting as the quirky townsfolk it portrays, This was Morris's second stab at the documentary form- after his earlier Gates Of Heaven, and it detailed the ramblings of a number of wacky folk from the town. Initially, the legend goes, Morris was drawn to Vernon- a Panhandle town, because, over the prior quarter century dozens of residents had taken up the bizarre practice of cutting off assorted limbs of theirs to collect large insurance payments. The working title of the film was Nub City, but Morris changed the title and focus once several people threatened his life. Morris is said to have chimed in, 'They literally became a fraction of themselves to become whole financially.' Yet, the truth is that the sorts of wacky folk portrayed live all over America, and the world- I saw them growing up in New York City, I've seen them in Midwestern suburbs and Great Lakes fishing towns, as well as the heart of Texas. Thus, the thing that I found the most interesting was that this 56 minute long film was not originally a theatrical release, but made for WNET, the New York City public television station. Given how formulaic most PBS documentaries have become in the quarter century since this film's release, that, alone, is a fact worth pondering.

First of all, any documentary film that doesn't include the director guiding the responses is a huge plus. To the viewer that called this film dull, I'm glad you don't get paid to critique film or the industry would be in serious trouble. This film was anything but dull. It's not full of action sequences or special effects because....IT'S A DOCUMENTARY!!!!! Absolutely unique film that I doubt we'll ever see the likes of again. Errol Morris comes through in a big way on this one. The editing was absolutely superb. Everything just flows together seamlessly. It is definitely a humorous film. I grew up in the south and it's view of small town rural life is spot on. I don't know how this portrayal of elderly southerners is offensive when all Morris did was put a camera in front of them and let them go. If anything, from my experiences, it's pretty much spot on. The film was excellently done! If you have never seen it you need to give it a whirl. It's on streaming Netflix now.

I am grateful to Werner Herzog for convincing Errol Morris to become a filmmaker. "Vernon, Florida" is an intriguing look at the inhabitants of a small town with a beautiful setting in the southern United States. Like most of his films, if not all, Morris remains completely aloof, and instead allows his subjects to speak for themselves. One can easily mock the old, toothless men and the man who just loves "gobblers" (turkeys) but that would be too easy. There is something poignant about the way the people of this small town attempt to express their feelings, as if in many cases, they do not have the vocabulary to articulate their ideas. However, underlying their simple way of life is something that touches humanity. They love their lives and live them day to day without a care in the world. A friend of mine said that these guys are actually a lot smarter than we think because they know something better than probably anyone else around, even if it is cultivating worms. I think perhaps they know a lot more than we think about what it is to be human; they are earnest and humble. I watched this film three times and after each viewing I came to have a deeper appreciation for every one of them. Errol Morris is perhaps the best documentary filmmaker around today and this film was a little treat. A must see for all.