I candidly admit I did not quite know what to make of this film until I learned the backstory from Ephraim Katz's highly esteemed Film Encyclopedia. Apparently, this documentary was actually conceived and created as a kind of cinematic "endurance test" for young inductees into the Serbian armed forces. While I found this a bit bizarre at first, a brief recap of the film more or less confirmed it. For instance, the opening scene in this documentary is a five-minute static shot of shrubs and trees on an otherwise barren hilltop, which is then followed by a second five-minute static shot of what appears to be a large rock pile. This is followed by a ten-minute sequence of an horrendously bad oompah band, tubas and all, playing squealing out-of-tune music at a bone-rattling volume, and after that, there is another ten-minute sequence of three men in work clothes walking slowly down an endless hallway in some sort of nondescript workplace as they mutter inaudibly to one another, and so on. I believe the title of the film, Good Luck, is further evidence of the endurance test nature of this documentary. And if, after reading this, you still have the temerity to embark upon a viewing of this film, I have only two final words for you: Good luck.
2 Reviews
Good Luck; Or, Slaving Away for a New Pair of Boots
Elijah_T29 April 2019
This is an interesting documentary that lacks context. Seeing life in the Serbian and Suriname mines is helpful, but to have so little explained is simply withholding. I was left to wonder why they started working there in the first place, why they didn't take alternate routes, if there were any alternate routes, and what their home lives were like. The best answers I recall were that the Serbians wanted to pay for the children's education and the Surinamese didn't want their wives to work, especially as a prostitute.
As far as entertainment goes, I found Act I to be mostly a dull-fest. I'll explain why below.
Act II, on the other hand, shines in this regard. Not only is there more discussed between the workers, there's more debt to the conversations. There's even a song. We learn so much more of them. It's as if they were of a culture that allowed them to be lively and vulnerable. The difference between how the Surinamese joked, talked, and embraced one another compared to the Serbians was stark. This could very easily be attributed to the environment both groups work in. A grey, dusty mine does not feed the soul as well as a colorful forest slowly being drowned in a copper-brown muck.
To watch Good Luck is to observe two separate peoples in their daily work rituals. Yes, it's mostly mundane, especially Act I. But if you want to see what it's like to work in those environments, this might be the film for you.
Entertainment-wise, Act I gets 3/5 and Act II gets 4.5/5.
I must say, though, the method used to signify the transition between the two acts was creatively blunt. Tip: Close an eye.
Side Note: I watched this at the 41st Denver Film Festival, where it was in some way or another compared to Zachary Fink and Alyssa Fedele's The Rescue List (5/5 stars). While they both have similarities when it comes to class and opportunity, I feel like Daniel Carbone's Phantom Cowboys (5/5) is the younger twin of Ben Russell's Good Luck.
As far as entertainment goes, I found Act I to be mostly a dull-fest. I'll explain why below.
Act II, on the other hand, shines in this regard. Not only is there more discussed between the workers, there's more debt to the conversations. There's even a song. We learn so much more of them. It's as if they were of a culture that allowed them to be lively and vulnerable. The difference between how the Surinamese joked, talked, and embraced one another compared to the Serbians was stark. This could very easily be attributed to the environment both groups work in. A grey, dusty mine does not feed the soul as well as a colorful forest slowly being drowned in a copper-brown muck.
To watch Good Luck is to observe two separate peoples in their daily work rituals. Yes, it's mostly mundane, especially Act I. But if you want to see what it's like to work in those environments, this might be the film for you.
Entertainment-wise, Act I gets 3/5 and Act II gets 4.5/5.
I must say, though, the method used to signify the transition between the two acts was creatively blunt. Tip: Close an eye.
Side Note: I watched this at the 41st Denver Film Festival, where it was in some way or another compared to Zachary Fink and Alyssa Fedele's The Rescue List (5/5 stars). While they both have similarities when it comes to class and opportunity, I feel like Daniel Carbone's Phantom Cowboys (5/5) is the younger twin of Ben Russell's Good Luck.
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