Sweetgrass -- Seek It Out!

HarryHoskins

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It's not often I'm moved to give a recommendation, but Sweetgrass is, in laymans terms, the greatest documentary I have seen in donkeys years and I, as your attorney, advise you to seek it out without delay.

The film documents the final cattle drive of a Montana ranching family and it's a slow, lyrical and rhythmic work with no voice-over and plenty of space for the viewer to think and listen and understand and draw their own conclusions.

It is a smart, old-school piece of art.

The documentary comes over you like a drug (I think it's title is an ironic wink although there is nothing ironic -- well, apart from the homesick cowboy on his mobile phone on the top of a mountain -- about it) and, if you give in to it you will be totally taken away for its 1hr 41 running time.

How do I explain its greatness? Well, let me give you a flavour of what you're going to get if you give it a go.

Firstly, you are going to get sheep. Sure, not the greatest subject. But the documentarians camera stays on the animals until they become so alive you can't take your eyes off them. This lingering camera is deployed throughout the whole piece and really gives you time to appreciate the beauty, strangeness and wonderful nature of life as well as think about it.

Soon you'll enter a surreal world of landscape and animals running in it like a white river. Give the film a little more time and you'll see the mastery of humans over their environment and the animals in it. Give it a little more and you'll see a relationship between the humans and animals in a way that is not often (unless you live on a farm) seen.

You'll also see the greatest lambing scene I have ever witnessed and the most interesting discussion of mechanized farming in a single (four minute long) shot that leaves you breathless.

Keep watching and you'll be drawn into a last rite of movement and see something that (apart from the walkie talkies and cell phones) probably hasn't changed for a century or more. The moving of the herd through the amazing American landscape is incredible. I cannot put in to words how moving it it.

I think the moving (and movement) nature of the piece is its heart. Even though, at one level the documentary is an abstract thought piece, you will have to have a hard heart not to be moved by the animals and their human counterparts.

This is a film about life, I think. And life is both cruel and humorous. You'll meet the cowboys. You'll laugh at their intentional jokes and smile and mist up and love them for who they are unintentionally. If you want real people and real Americans and real characters you won't find any better than in this documentary.

I could keep talking about this forever, but i won't. Re-reading what I've written I know I haven't done it justice. It is so much better than anything my late night proclamations can capture. It is, simply, an immediate entry into my top ten documentaries of all time.

Please watch it -- I saw it on Netflix UK so it's probably available there. Love to hear some more thoughts on it. And love it if just one person gets the buzz off it that I got.

Bloody. Great. Docu. :)
 

HarryHoskins

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Okay, so I said I wouldn't keep talking -- but I forget to mention it also has the best cowboy swearing scene I have ever heard. :)

The guy goes from despair to anger to annoyance to enjoyment in the space of five minutes. All with some blue language and a backdrop of beautiful countryside.

It was so life affirming, this one mans struggle, through expletives, to get into a happy frame of mind. Well, you just gots to watch it to know. :)
 

Ari Meermans

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Just read a little about it and it sounds amazing and I understand there was little editing. I'll see if I can hunt it up. Thanks, Harry.
 

HarryHoskins

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Excellent, Ari. :)

Like I said, its a real slow burn, the shots are long, but my word there is so much to gain from that. I think it was Clint Eastwood who said his later films were deliberately slow so you could take them all in, well, this is one of those -- but in documentary form.

If you let it get you -- if you let the rhythm of the visuals and sounds rush over you, you'll love it. Certainly, if you watch the lambing scene (around 15 mins in) you'll be hooked. This is a great film.

Thanks for looking it up. You won't regret it. :)
 

Ari Meermans

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I'm looking forward to finding it. *fingers crossed* I know it's one "research" film I won't be watching alone.
 

HarryHoskins

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Research film is a great way to describe it, too, Ari. :)

More than a purely abstract or arty or human piece, it really is a document of what has been and how a certain thing was done and may probably be done no more.

Man. I learnt so much from it. These fella's and fellowesses were riding out with canvas tents and dogs through that brilliant landscape and working the herd the same way they had done for generations (ok, minus the cell phones, walkie talkies and turf laying quad).

Still, when you see the lambing and the way they move through the landscape; when you see the cowboys bitch and laugh and get scared you get the feeling this is how it always was.

This film, I think, is an American document. :)