There are so many problems with this so-called documentary I don't know where to begin.
For starters, this is really a fake documentary. There is so much stock footage and scenes from an old film strewn throughout, one wonders if the title Morris came up with for this film actually refers to his OWN film and how he made it. He probably shot this very quickly, very cheaply, and is just plain out of control as this story is a big mess.
Most of this film is entirely boring, and most of the anecdotes the 4 subjects relate are boring. This film is also filled with scenes that have nothing to do with the story being told and it shows. How Roger Ebert and some other critics could have listed this in their top 10 the year it came out is shocking.
One of the biggest problems, is that none of the 4 people being interviewed are very interesting. In truth, they probably could be, or likely have interesting things that could have been related/shown, but they all come off boring... and this is clearly Morris' fault, not the 4 people's. The lion tamer is the more interesting of the bunch, but he still is pretty boring in Morris' hands. What a shame. What a waste of celluloid. I really expected a better film, because I recall some of the critical claim it had gotten 14 or 15 years ago. But now that I finally saw this on one of the movie channels, those critics must have been on drugs. Actually... that might be the way to view this film... if you're high, you might actually like it since it's all over the place with weird, non-linear footage. And then if you fall asleep, you won't miss anything.
For starters, this is really a fake documentary. There is so much stock footage and scenes from an old film strewn throughout, one wonders if the title Morris came up with for this film actually refers to his OWN film and how he made it. He probably shot this very quickly, very cheaply, and is just plain out of control as this story is a big mess.
Most of this film is entirely boring, and most of the anecdotes the 4 subjects relate are boring. This film is also filled with scenes that have nothing to do with the story being told and it shows. How Roger Ebert and some other critics could have listed this in their top 10 the year it came out is shocking.
One of the biggest problems, is that none of the 4 people being interviewed are very interesting. In truth, they probably could be, or likely have interesting things that could have been related/shown, but they all come off boring... and this is clearly Morris' fault, not the 4 people's. The lion tamer is the more interesting of the bunch, but he still is pretty boring in Morris' hands. What a shame. What a waste of celluloid. I really expected a better film, because I recall some of the critical claim it had gotten 14 or 15 years ago. But now that I finally saw this on one of the movie channels, those critics must have been on drugs. Actually... that might be the way to view this film... if you're high, you might actually like it since it's all over the place with weird, non-linear footage. And then if you fall asleep, you won't miss anything.