Bright Leaves (2003) User Reviews

Great Fun

[Mengedegna · 8/10 · 14 October 2003]

Seen at NYFF. Ross McElwee has perfected a sui generis form of personal-confession, free-associating, voiced-over "documentary" (if that's the word) that isn't quite like anything else. (Comparisons will doubtless be made with Michael Moore, but the difference is obvious: Moore hammers his points home, while McElwee tries to pretend that he doesn't have any to make.) Five years, he tells us, in the making, the film mines his native North Carolina for musings on tabacco, its ravages, its sweet consolations, and the fact that his family lost its fortunes to the Duke clan and then made back a more modest one by treating the victims of the industry that that clan had perfected. Oh, and that he had a father and has a son he whom he loved and loves beyond all telling. And that there was a Michael Curtiz/Gary Cooper movie, "Bright Leaf", that may or may not be about his family, but that we all ought to go check out anyway, if only to see Cooper interact on screen with his then lover Patricia Neal, who turns up in the now-doughty flesh the better to frustrate McElwee in his attempts to validate his romantic notions, another theme. North Carolina is the main character here, or rather McElwee's complex relationship with it and feelings about it and about his own now-Yankeeized family. Charm and yarns, poignant reflections on time lost and time regained and how the home movies he and his family seem to have made with Friedmanesque compulsion may or may not interact with these, some pure and wonderful comedy on film itself, all come together in a rich stew.

If you expect movies to be "about" anything in particular, this film will doubtless leave you scratching your head in frustration and bafflement. If you can accept a movie that is a beautifully paced (quick/elegiac/quick) romp by a quirky mind with one of the sharpest eyes around, you'll have a great time. The festival audience (many of whom, unlike me, seemed to know what to expect) certainly did.

PS: In the Q&A, McElwee pointed out the obvious: that this film was actually made on film, not from digitized pixels. He wryly dismissed those who applauded this affirmation as flacks for Kodak, but the reason for the applause is real and obvious. What a joy it is once again to actually see detail in an image, to see faces in full and changing expression instead of in soupy facsimile. And to see real colors (and what an eye for color McElwee has) in all their changing subtlety, instead of vague planes of yellow or puce.

Back To My (tobacco)Roots!

[p-leentfaar · 6/10 · 25 January 2004]

A documentary full of selfpity in which the director gives us a look in his family history and their connection to the tobacco industry. It has it's funny moments but tends to drag a little. It helps if you've seen BRIGHT LEAF by Michael Curtiz, but how many people have?

McElwee Marches Again

[sol- · 6/10 · 6 April 2017]

Inspired by Gary Cooper's character in a movie about the tobacco trade which he believes is based on his great-grandfather, 'Sherman's March' documentarian Ross McElwee tries to make a documentary about the rampant tobacco industry in North Carolina here. As anyone who has seen 'Sherman's March' would know, McElwee (much like Nick Broomfield) has a tendency to make his documentaries equally about himself researching a subject as the subject itself and the highlight of 'Bright Leaves' is McElwee's obsession with the Cooper movie - a film he has watched so many times that he has memorised every subtle hand movement. The film's single best part is an interview with Bosnian film director Vlada Petric who carts McElwee around on a wheelbarrow in order to make McElwee's film more "kinesthetic". Petric hits some nails quite sharply on the head in terms how overly complex McElwee's project is and 'Bright Leaves' therefore really becomes about McElwee's persistence more than anything else. On the downside, this leads to the film being very light on tobacco related content; whereas in 'Sherman's March', one really discovered some things about General Sherman as well as McElwee, the same cannot really be said here. Still, it is a commendable effort and arguably more intriguing than a straightforward tobacco documentary would have been.

A truly original work of brilliance from the master of the personal documentary.

[tjackson · 10/10 · 26 September 2004]

Bright Leaves is Ross McElwee at his best, part discovery, part diary, filled with humor, and overflowing with humanity. The basic premise, that he is searching for a possible connection between the Michael Curtiz/Gary Cooper/Patricia Neal/Lauren Bacall film 'Bright Leaf' and his own family history is fascinating but merely a starting point for a film that discovers its layers as it goes. Set in North Carolina, the home of bright leaf tobacco, he traces the story passed down through generations of the battle for tobacco supremacy between McElwees and the Dukes. The latter become the multi millionaires of tobacco, while the MacElwees were hypothetically shut out of a possible tobacco fortune, taking on lives as doctors, filmmakers, and in the case of his 2nd cousin – a curator of rare film prints and posters. The film is a colorful portrait of family, friends, and plain folks, filled with serendipitous plot moments, permeated with the wonder of living and being human.

While his initial 'search' seeks parallels between his ancestry and the story in film Bright Leaf , McElwee widens into the larger paradox of tobacco farming as a way of life vs. the deleterious effects of smoking.

Yet the heart of the film is in the smaller details and his supporting characters. McElwee has a remarkable genius for weaving what seems to be a discursive collection of real people into a film tapestry that meditates on work, love, hope, charity, the passage of time, growing up, family, mortality and more. His deadpan narration is at once humorous and ruminative. The writing leaps about pulling the ends together, considering ideas, speculating. His choices for subjects move from cousins, friends, past acquaintances to home movies and remarkably poignant moments with his son (who closes the film in a wonderful final sequence). There is a hilarious scene with film historian (former Harvard colleague) Vlada Petric who does an outrageous monologue riffing on both the McElwee and Curtiz films. Bright Leaves then becomes about film-making and memory itself.

Like the great documentary classics of Cinema Verite we discover so much in the small moments and passing images that the film stays with you long after you leave the theater. It should be seen on the big screen, as it is all shot on film and not video and the images resonate like film. Get to it before you can only see it on video. The bigheartedness of his vision deserves to be seen large.

Tobacco poetry

[holly500 · 10/10 · 2 November 2003]

While it is still a personal documentary from McElwee, the master of the form, "Bright Leaves" is a film that speaks far beyond the personal. As McElwee films across the south, it seems everyone-- smoker or nonsmoker-- has a relationship with tobacco. The most amazing thing about the film is the filmmaker's even handedness and understanding for the pull that cigarette smoking has on his subjects, even though the filmmaker himself has never had a tobacco habit to peak of. Given Michael Moore's work and other popular documentaries of the day, the expectation is that "Bright Leaves" would have a stern and condemning view of the tobacco industry. On the contrary, he gives humorous insight on the age-old habit. McElwee's writing, as found in his narration, is incredibly poetic as it rolls along the blue hills of North Carolina. Even weeks later, I think of that last sequence of shots, the tanker of tobacco heading off to far lands, the shots of his son, and understand why I myself, like so many, have this attraction to smoking, or what McElwee calls the urge to give pause to time, and likens to his own filmmaking and photography.

The most how genius moment features Vlada Petric, and McElwee's long standing side character, Charlene, is still a gift. The film really does stick with you for a long, long time, and deserves lots of exposure and great distribution.

A southern view of a southern paradox

[timgee · 10/10 · 21 November 2004]

A sensitive treatment of the complex relationship between people, economics and a health hazard; it gives an accurate shapshot of the region (tobacco road), its views, the concerns of its people. The locations are real. The people are real. The accents are real. View this film and you are home.

Ross McElwee consistently entertains us with his unique sense of humor as he explores the possible connections between his great grandfather and the main character in Foster FitzSimons' novel "Bright Leaf." Anyone who is a lover of movies, history, and appreciates a good yarn will enjoy this film. If you are interested in the South, this film, along with McElwee's classic "Sherman's March," will give you significant insights into this region.

silly and self-indulgent glorified home movie

[[e-mail] · 1/10 · 5 July 2005]

The author sets out on a "journey of discovery" of his "roots" in the southern tobacco industry because he believes that the (completely and deservedly forgotten) movie "Bright Leaf" is about an ancestor of his. Its not, and he in fact discovers nothing of even mild interest in this absolutely silly and self-indulgent glorified home movie, suitable for screening at (the director's) drunken family reunions but certainly not for commercial - or even non-commercial release. A good reminder of why most independent films are not picked up by major studios - because they are boring, irrelevant and of no interest to anyone but the director and his/her immediate circles. Avoid at all costs!

A Masterful Follow Up to "Sherman's March"...

[jk8n · 9/10 · 18 April 2005]

It was about 15 years ago that I first saw Ross McElwee's quasi-autobiographical documentary about his quest to trace General Sherman's unsuccessful campaign through the South during the Civil War. "Sherman's March" was a film which showed the delightful disconnect between McElwee's memories of vestigial Southern culture, with the man he had become. Just as the American South exemplifies the Sublime to the Ridiculous, McElwee's ostensible journey to follow the trail of Sherman's March was really an excuse to visit old girlfriends and childhood memories along the way.

"Bright Leaves" is so good a follow up to McElwee's earlier film about his search to understand his Southern roots that, rather than inviting a comparison with "Sherman's March," it simply picks up his story with a new quest. This time it's his search to understand the history of North Carolina tobacco farming, which was also a part of his family's history three generations before.

The film is at least two hours long, but not one extraneous frame is included. In McElwee's typical style, he presents us with a meandering, quiet, thoughtful and extremely funny unfolding of the tobacco story, and his signature pacing perfectly highlights the layers and layers of meaning he wants to get across.

As a Northerner and unashamed Yankee who has lived in the South for 13 years (which is 12 years too long), I can vouch that McElwee's films have just as much value for those of us who lack the DNA required to understand the South. His films are not just for born and bred Southerners who see themselves as special members of a unique and proudly eccentric group.

On a practical level, "Bright Leaves" may be the best anti-smoking film ever made, just as "Supersize Me" was the most convincing argument about the dangers of fast food. I highly recommend you take your kids to see it, too.

Much too focused on the director's family, indulgent

[julianmiller-1 · 4/10 · 25 June 2005]

I was expecting a documentary that focused on the tobacco industry in North Carolina. Instead I watched a man who rues the fact that his great grandfather lost his tobacco empire to the Duke family. And this went on and on. If Mr. McElwee's family had prevailed over the Dukes I doubt that Mr. McElwee would have any problems with the death toll caused by tobacco-related diseases. I grew up near the area where Mr. McElwee's family began it tobacco business ; I expected more than McEwee's continual focus on his family. I learned very little about the history of tobacco in the NC economy and the ramifications to the state's economy by tighter regulation of tobacco. The countless references to the movie "Bright Leaves" are out of place - So what if Gary Cooper played Mr. McElwee's great grandfather? Does the viewer gain any understanding of the role of tobacco in the North Carolina economy by the showing of old film clips of a fictionalized film? I didn't.

About Tobacco But Also About Southern Exceptionalism

[lawprof · 9/10 · 15 September 2004]

Documentarian Ross McElwee in "Bright Leaves" offers his second paean to the South as he continues exploring his family lineage and Southern heritage. In "Sherman's March" McElwee wryly counterpoised the South that fell to the Union general's forces to the world of that era's descendants. He sculpted an original and fascinating snapshot of the American South.

"Bright Leaves" is more personal than the earlier film. The title comes from two sources. The first is the shimmeringly green tobacco plant native to North Carolina, America's largest producer of that evil weed. It also is the title, slightly different as "Bright Leaf," of an old, excellent, not often seen film starring Gary Cooper and Patricia O'Neal. It's an undeservedly obscure movie.

McElwee got it in his mind that "Bright Leaf" (based on a novel) was based on the life of the director's forbear, his great-grandfather, a man who supposedly was duped and cheated out of a tobacco fortune by the famous Duke family after many years of protracted litigation. As Ross McElwee originally saw it, but for the nefarious acts of the Dukes, which allegedly included paying off judges, he would today be enjoying the splendor of antebellum mansion living and the accumulation of riches earned by cigarettes.

But as McElwee explores the story behind his great-grandfather's slow rise to inventiveness and steady descent to bankruptcy, he also recognizes the enormous pathology that smoking unleashed not only in the U.S. but in all countries where North Carolina's prized tobacco is avidly and compulsively consumed. No Michael Moore, his social consciousness is sincere but restrained, tempered by his North Carolina childhood.

McElwee uses interviews with family members, childhood acquaintances and many others to depict the centrality of tobacco farming in the state of his birth. A short motel room talk with Patricia O'Neal makes the cineaste wish she didn't have a hurried schedule and could have been questioned at length.

A transplanted Southerner, McElwee has lived in the North for a long time. His wife sets him off on this investigation saying he'd been away too long from the South. He involves his son at different stages of the filming, which took five years, so we see the kid change from a post-toddler to a teen apparently more interested in the technology of film-making than in his dad's heritage.

There are some very funny scenes here. The best is when a white-haired, elderly "rabid film theorist" with a rich European accent, in North Carolina to lecture, straps McElwee into a wheelchair and takes him five times around the block while spouting academic argot about making movies.

McElwee learns a great deal about tobacco raising as well as what probably is the truth about his great-grandpa. No shocking revelations but minor disappointments emerge.

What McElwee has done a second time, perhaps not fully consciously, is to support the theory of Southern Exceptionalism, a favorite of one school of history. The main exposition of that school is that the South's history and heritage is not only unique, it stamps those born there with a special pride and association with love of land not common in other parts of the U.S. Midwesterners who sojourn to great cities may or may not retain fond memories of their childhood but only Southerners remain psychologically and emotionally wedded, almost always, to their native states. It doesn't much matter whether they stay or leave, the early associations remain vivid and also shape character and beliefs in ways that separate Southerners from their fellow Americans (not always, by the way, for the best).

As an anti-smoking film, "Bright Leaves" is more gentle than most. It's obvious that most of the people filmed here know how deadly smoking is but their almost languid acceptance of a likely future neoplastic assault does make one think about free choice and the limits of regulation. An almost blasé attitude towards cancer by some of the interviewees is quietly chilling.

A fine documentary.

9/10

Immensely charming

[dj_bassett · 14 February 2005]

It's deceptive to say what the movie's "about", although you might sum it up something like "a meditation on the metaphorical connections between the dangers and allure of smoking and the dangers and allure of documentary film-making". Though that's not quite it. McElwee's film is best experienced, rather than talked about, as the delights are in the details: Patricia Neal advising a fan on how to use her camera; McElwee park, a rather sad looking field with a couple of benches (McElwee actually sits in one, a rare moment when he's on screen himself); footage of McElwee's father in a yamaka, while McElwee wonders aloud why his dad, a staunch Presbyterian, was wearing a yamaka; a couple that keeps vowing to quit smoking and keeps breaking the vow. Etc. The movie rambles about, sometimes with only a very vague connection to the ostensible theme of "tobacco in the South", but that's it's charm -- it's like a filmic version of literary miscellany. Highly recommended.

McElwee does it again!

[dirosent · 10/10 · 27 February 2006]

McElwee's witty and poignant voice-over makes this a beautiful piece about his family's history and the tobacco culture of North Carolina. I'm not quite sure what the previous reviewer is talking about. McElwee carefully and tastefully interviews his subjects and it is clear that he is not in any way being contemptuous or mocking them, rather it seems that the people he interviews are very much like he -- from the same place and background, and in my humble opinion, he shows them in a very sympathetic light. If you can find this film, you should definitely watch it. I have to admit that I am biased because I love his documentaries. If you like any of his films, you'll enjoy this one.

Preserving the Past

[gentendo · 8/10 · 12 December 2007]

One of the main themes of the film supported through its editing is on the importance of preserving the past. After compiling a multitude of footage ranging over a fifty year time period, director Ross McElwee seeks to reconnect to his family ancestry by researching the elusive life of his tobacco-selling great-grandfather. The significance of preserving this past will help teach his son, as well as the viewer, of the harmful effects of tobacco cigarettes. Through careful and effective editing techniques, the message of this preservation is brought to the viewer's attention. To begin with, McElwee's surreal voice-over seems to sedate the viewer, causing them to feel a glimpse of the dreamy and forgotten life of his great-grandfather, John McElwee.

He also carefully selects what footage would best compliment the narration and theme of the piece. One example of this is illustrated through the multiple interviews he captures of those who have and are still struggling with the fight against nicotine addiction. His hopes of obtaining and preserving these interviews will hopefully cause his son to steer clear from the illusory vice of cigarettes. By interweaving various stock recording's of his son growing up, he speaks of his desire to one day infuse in him the importance of learning more about his ancestors. He understands that the film itself is already a work of history and later describes that his son will hopefully look upon the film with fondness, as well as a tool for education.

During a party sequence, McElwee compares filming a movie to smoking a cigarette. He juxtaposes the concept of preservation stillness caught through the eye of the camera lens, with the transient nicotine stillness obtained through the inhalation of cigarettes. The stillness obtained through both is something he hopes his son will see the truth in—the former being permanent; the latter being temporary. Lastly, the music he incorporates to support the theme is also edited effectively. He ironically contrasts a group of farmers singing church hymns with fields of tobacco being harvested right outside their church—suggesting, of course, that there is something hypocritical there to be recognized.

Did I just watch this?

[bglova · 1/10 · 24 August 2005]

I was fascinated as to how truly bad this movie was. Was the viewer supposed to learn something, or reflect on anything here? What was up with the pumpkins? Was I supposed to be impressed with the motel shots? Does it matter that there are some garbage bags on a rooftop across the street of a hotel? Why does the narrator unsuccessfully mock the people he interviews (it is so obvious that he edited out the really informative parts of his interviews to achieve mockery). The best part of the movie was the interview with the film professor who tells us how bad this movie will be even before it is finished.

I am truly amazed. I believe that the creator is struggling to become an intellectual or is trying to impress the intellectual community.

Amazing Documentary Film!

[framptonhollis · 9/10 · 17 November 2015]

"Bright Leaves" is one of the absolute greatest documentary films of all time. It has made it to my top 10 favorite films list because of how much it, simply, amazed me!

The film revolves around the tobacco industry, the film industry, the McElwee family history, and many interesting characters we meet throughout the film. These characters have many interesting stories to tell, whether they're tragic or funny.

There's McElwee's film expert cousin, his hard to connect with 12 year old son, a couple trying to quit their smoking habits, and so on. These characters (I know they're real people, I'll call them characters anyway) are really what makes "Bright Leaves" so special, along with the, at times quite clever and funny, narration by the filmmaker, and the greatly interesting, highly personal presentation of it all.

Going into it, I expected this to be more of a pro-tobacco industry film, however, the film really does show the true negativity that smoking causes. We see the bad affects it has on health and the troubling process of trying to quit.

For those looking for a BBC-style documentary on the history of the tobacco industry, will not find much enjoyment here. However, if you like McElwee's style and would enjoy a quirky, funny, and, sometimes, almost heartbreaking, portrait of the McElwee family history, you should definitely check this one out! It's absolutely spectacular (and highly underrated) documentary film!

Whining Filmmaker PASS ON THIS HORRIBLE FILM

[The_Boxing_Cat · 1/10 · 15 May 2018]

Jealous greedy filmmaker who wants to say that tobacco is killing everyone in North Carolina. However, I cannot help but feel that if his grandfather had succeeded with his tobacco endeavors, he would be saying how wonderful the tobacco industry is.

He claims a movie staring Gary Cooper is about his Great grandfather and how he was cheated by a more powerful tobacco man. It's more likely his great grandfather was just a terrible businessman.

Pathetic whiner who is ungrateful and RUDE! He makes fun of his subjects and seems to have a "Jesus complex".

Terrible film, I want to be clear- this is not a documentary, just a one sided indulgent story of a wannabe filmmaker.

It's kinesthetic

[Camera-Obscura · 17 September 2006]

I loved McElwee's unique documentary odyssey SHERMAN'S MARCH (1986), so I was curious about his other work. This time he follows the trail of his great-grandfather, who was in the tobacco business. McElwee's family legend has it that the Hollywood melodrama BRIGHT LEAF(1950) by Michael Curtiz, starring Gary Cooper as a 19th century tobacco grower is based on filmmaker Ross McElwee's great-grandfather, who created the Bull Durham brand. Using this legacy as a jumping off point, McElwee reaches back to his roots in this wry, witty rumination on the history of American tobacco and the myth of cinema.

Easily the funniest moment in the film is when noted (and dreaded) film theorist, and historian Vladar Petric, assaults the poor McElwee, while he's being driven round the block in a wheelchair. Long live the dreaded Vladar Petric!

Not a complete success; sometimes McElwee's odyssey becomes dreary when he tracks down some his father's patients, who was a doctor and treated many tobacco-related illnesses. His reflections on family and the relationship with his son are somewhat self-indulgent at times, but definitely has its moments with an honest look at The South, Hollywood and his family's relation with tobacco.

Camera Obscura --- 7/10