Ross McElwee's SHERMAN'S MARCH (1985)

 

"You're not as interesting because you're so self effacing and polite!... How can you be a filmmaker if you don't have any passion?"- Charlene

Well, on the one hand McElwee does capture some remarkable footage of deep-fried and (ftankly) well meaning Southernerns talking about the decidedly mixed legacy of Sherman and his March (and the "death and destruction" as one woman says bluntly in an off the cuff interview), not to mention some Civil War pageantry. And there's even something to the parallels to the (then, still relevant) fear and dread over Nuclear annihilation always hanging over a then still prevalent Cold War threat. When McElwee keeps the focus on visiting those sites and even a Nuclear war protest (because in the South most of the Nuclear waste gets sent there from the North), and when he can successfully thematically connect himself to Sherman in a manner of speaking - how the futility but persistence of Sherman and himself with relationships is so striking.

But on the other hand, this also reminds me why, oh, David Holzman's Diary was less than half this length and managed to pack so much more insight into the fractured and often combustible male brain/psyche. This is personal filmmaking and that can be a tricky thing to pull off without some kind of through-line. What makes Sherman's March so unique and eccentric is also what makes it kind of a slog; if you are putting a lot into a documentary that is fine, but does the subject matter - all of it - fit the run time?

There are times when his conversations with the ladies that he may be courting or may just be intrigued by (and they reject him or he pushes them away) are interesting or even warm and intellectually stimulating (sexually for sure, notice how he shoots some of their legs and even a couple nude sunbathing from afar); there are times when I'd be lying if I said I didnt go to my phone and go to my current obsession of the r/leopardsatemyface (but I digress).

Because there are some many women in his orbit that go in and out of his life, it's difficult for any one to really make their mark, though after it ends I recall one was trying to be in a Burt Reynolds movie and another milked a cow while talking Linguistics.

Another way to put my own mixed up feelings here...I've watched two Marcel Ophuls documentaries in as many months about figures of resistance and devastation in WW2 (as with this film, part of the 1001 Movies Before you Die list), but there's a lot to unpack in those stories and Ophuls takes his audiences into deeper crevices and subjects than one could expect. Sherman's March is about how life has distractions that take one away from the main thrust of the subject, and so an odd beat like McElwee stumbling on a Burt Reynolds stand in ends up being a highlight. In other words, I didn't have to learn about Sherman's March for this to be successful, but at 157 minutes all I came away with was... I hope this director gets away from the tick bites and gets a good night's sleep.

Weird fucking movie. I respect it more than I fully enjoyed it. Charlene is the one truly memorable and confrontational female subject, though, she deserves a shout-out.