This documentary is the study of four aging rural brothers and farmers who live together in a virtual shack, and the uproar in their town when one is charged with the murder of another.
The locals all believe these sweet, sad, simple, almost retarded seeming souls are incapable of murder, and that Delbert Ward is either being framed entirely, or unfairly prosecuted for a mercy killing in a world where putting an animal out of it's suffering is the norm.
A portrait of rural America like nothing we see in fiction films; there are people living completely out-of-touch with reality and the modern world, and others who are as sophisticated and insightful as any city dweller.
It's also a portrait of law enforcement with what seems to be an agenda beyond just the truth. It all builds to a courtroom sequence more tense than almost any Hollywood thriller. A quite special film.
I wish it didn't wear it's biases quite so on its sleeve. I'd have rather had a chance to make up my own mind about who are the heroes and the villains. But this is still string, thought provoking stuff.
The locals all believe these sweet, sad, simple, almost retarded seeming souls are incapable of murder, and that Delbert Ward is either being framed entirely, or unfairly prosecuted for a mercy killing in a world where putting an animal out of it's suffering is the norm.
A portrait of rural America like nothing we see in fiction films; there are people living completely out-of-touch with reality and the modern world, and others who are as sophisticated and insightful as any city dweller.
It's also a portrait of law enforcement with what seems to be an agenda beyond just the truth. It all builds to a courtroom sequence more tense than almost any Hollywood thriller. A quite special film.
I wish it didn't wear it's biases quite so on its sleeve. I'd have rather had a chance to make up my own mind about who are the heroes and the villains. But this is still string, thought provoking stuff.