Ross McElwee: Sherman’s March

Reality Hunger manifestator (and former Marketplace of Ideas guest) has what he calls a “Very Partial Reading List”, which for some reason is only available as a Word document. He presumably means it for readers who, charged by Reality Hunger’s message of boredom with the traditionalism, formality, and plottiness of most novels, need a shot of the good stuff. I recognize books from writers I’ve enjoyed before like Nicholson Baker, Douglas Coupland, W.G. Sebald, D.J. Waldie, and Borges. I recognize books from writers I’ve got a jones to get into, like Gilbert Sorrentino, Geoff Dyer, J.M. Coetzee, and Julian Barnes. I even recognize non-textual media, like Denis Leary’s stand-up special No Cure for Cancer, Danger Mouse’s Beatles/Jay-Z mash-up The Grey Album, and Larry David’s HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Promising company, then, for another name that rung a bell: Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March. Despite recommendation after recommendation flying at me over the years, not least from Netflix’s increasingly trustworthy algorithms, I’d never pursued the film. I sometimes wonder if it wasn’t the Civil War connection that put me off; the film’s poster bears an image of Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman, and its name echoes that of his 1864 campaign that ended in the capture of Savannah, Georgia. As in junior high, I still reflexively tire at the dry, sepia-toned old-timiness of any kind of Civil War material. Then again, it took me surprisingly long to consciously acknowledge any connection between the concepts “Civil War”, “Abraham Lincoln”, “slavery”, and “a war where one part of a country fights another”. Should I blame the failings of public education now?

Never having spent much time in the South outside the bits of Florida that might as well be Northern colonies, I’m always surprised to hear that people still talk about the Civil War down there. (Obligatory Onion link: “South Postpones Rising Again for Yet Another Year”.) Apparently they talk not just about that but about Sherman and his March as well. Having come up in the South, McElwee got it in his head to shoot a documentary about the lasting effects, physical and psychological, of Sherman’s March. Alas, McElwee’s life rebels at his attempt to impose such a project on it. This rebellion comes in the form of a breakup, and his high-minded documentary turns into a filmed search for a new lady that meanders through the South from candidate to semi-appealing but ultimately unsuitable candidate.

Needless to say, Netflix’s user-reviewer brain trust disapproves:

This is not at all what we were expecting, (and yes we did read the details before ordering). This was a total waste of time..turned it off after only a few minutes, and that included skipping through scenes to see if it ever got better...It did not!

Maybe 15 minutes of this film seriously discuss other people (their attitudes and ancestors) and places devastation by Sherman. The majority of this 2 1/2 hour bore-fest is devoted to the depression and anxiety prone directors personal rants and interpretations about this and that but mainly his romantic relationships and thoughts about women.

the guy should have been honest and returned the grant money when he found he could not do the documentary on General Sherman's March, on the account of wallowing in pity for himself after being dumped by his girlfriend. Sheesh! Get over it dude!

Maybe you need to be stoned or a super intellectual type, but I'm just a regular dude who wants to be entertained.

Similar complaints appear for all of McElwee’s films available on Neftlix: too much McElwee, not enough being “about” what it’s supposedly “about”, I’m just a regular dude who wants to be entertained, etc., etc. Personally, I think all films should perform their own equivalent of shifting from being about Sherman’s March to being about the search for a new girlfriend; letting the content shift as it may concentrates you on the form, the element of cinema that matters most. McElwee tried to dictate his project’s content, which didn’t work, as it often doesn’t. Many filmmakers, especially documentary filmmakers, would have simply soldiered on (as it were), an instinct that has produced most of the mediocrities of our time. McElwee proves himself wiser than that.

The lineup of prospective suitresses includes a new-agey actress, a Mormon, a survivalist, an angry activist, a parking-lot rock star, and an aspiring Margaret Mead. The two other major women, even more fascinating, are McElwee’s sister, eager to explain the value of her eyebag-removal surgery, and his former teacher Charleen, hell-bent on hitching him up with whichever eligible woman rolls down the pike and calling it good. Taken as a gallery of eccentrics, Sherman’s March bears a strong similarity to the documentaries Errol Morris shot around the same time, like the tale of dueling pet cemeteries Gates of Heaven and, more so, Vernon Florida, a brief examination of a small Florida Panhandle town.

Fuse that sensibility with Nick Broomfield’s, and you’ve got a reasonably accurate sense of this movie. Broomfield’s documentaries tend to document Broomfield’s making of the documentary as much as whatever they’re supposed document, be it Aileen Wuornos’ media profile, Courtney Love’s control on Kurt Cobain, or the connection between Biggie Smalls’ death and Tupac’s. Some people quite dislike his work for that, and I grant that there might be valid stylistic reasons to do so, but it most often seems to bespeak a certain closedmindeness about cinema. Or maybe I don’t mean closedmindedness; maybe the real problem has to do with misplaced focus. Besides, how could you grumble at that 1930s sports car McElwee drives around for half the movie?

Comments

[Jamie T]

One has to remember, this film was made in an era that predates todays "over sharing" of our personal lives.

[adrian]

Haha this post made me laugh. Of course Sherman's March is not for everyone... but if you are going to attempt to publish an "intelligent" criticism of it... well at least make an attempt at the intelligent part...

Hmm there must be some reason this "2 1/2 hour borefest" has directly and indirectly earned Ross several millions of dollars and the chance to continuously travel the world and live life in a way you will never experience.

Oh... and apparently Steve Carr/Rumpus Entertainment and potentially HBO have found this "2 1/2 hour borefest" to be worthy of paying a significant sum in order to obtain the rights to create a mainstream fiction adaptation. So now your ADHD, uncultured and action-addicted brain can check out the new Hollywood version coming sometime soon! And please don't pirate it - we're tryin to stack that paper... even if you can't afford the high-cost price of movie tickets..

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=23564

So how's you're career going buddy? Go jack off to Transformers 2 on your lavish Netflix account instead of ignorantly commenting on a genre of film, a rare/complex filmmaker and one of the most genuine and hardworking people you will ever meet.

peace

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So how's you're career going buddy? Go jack off to Transformers 2 on your lavish Netflix account instead of ignorantly commenting on a genre of film, a rare/complex filmmaker and one of the most genuine and hardworking people you will ever meet.

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