Errol Morris

Started by snaporaz, March 04, 2003, 03:01:24 AM

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snaporaz

i think i have an abnormal liking for documentaries.

but i like them. so yay.

anyways, my favourite, and arguably the best documentary filmmaker is errol morris, who i trust is known to most of you guys.

he's done such greats as a brief history of time, fast, cheap & out of control, mr. death: the rise and fall of fred a. leuchter, jr. and, the most important and greatest - the thin blue line.

discuss. comment. flame.

Ghostboy

I haven't seen as many as I probably should have...only Mr. Death and The Thin Blue Line (which really is incredible). The thing I love about his documentaries is that he treats them like narrative films. The recreations in Thin Blue Line added so much that a simple description or diagram would never have been able to do.

Other docs that I love: Hearts Of Darkness, 2 Days In September (one of the most suspensful movies I've ever seen), and of course Michael Moore's stuff. And Lost In La Mancha is probably climbing up there, too.

Xixax

I'm in Snap's camp on this one. I, too, love documentaries when they're done well.

The thing about documentaries is that when they're bad, they're really bad. And when they're good, they're really good. There's almost no in between.

I've seen some really horrible documentaries (Journeys with George) and some kick ass ones.

I still haven't seen The Thin Blue Line because Netflix doesn't have it. I want to see it so bad. I have seen Errol Morris' IFC show. I think I heard he used almost 20 cameras in a single interview for that show? It was pretty excellent - the ones I saw.

I want to make a documentary of my own, but I fear that it'll be really bad and I won't know it because I'm too close to the subject. That's a fine line you have to walk, I think.
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RegularKarate

Quote from: XixaxThe thing about documentaries is that when they're bad, they're really bad. And when they're good, they're really good. There's almost no in between.

I think Genghis Blues kind of falls in between.  Great story, but kind of poorly done overall.  Really interesting though.

snaporaz

Quote from: XixaxI still haven't seen The Thin Blue Line because Netflix doesn't have it.

it's not on dvd [i'm almost positive], that's why. the only real way to see it is by buying it or just being lucky enough for your video store to carry it.

i had to buy it, but i was already an errol morris fan so i didn't mind coughing up some change. amazon had it for only about ten bucks. unfortunately now, it's out of stock.

sidney_falco

Glad to see some other people who appreciate Errol Morris.  I've seen all of his films and they are all wonderful.  However, Gates of Heaven is my runner-up for favorite movie of all time.  It's a documentary about this pet cemetary that closes down in California and the new cemetary that the pets are moved to.  It's a remarkably deep movie that's funny and tragic at the same time.  Saying it's a movie about pet cemetaries is like saying The Godfather is a movie about the mafia.  That's just the surface.

MacGuffin

"Crumb" is one of the best docs ever made.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Ghostboy

Ah yes, I second that one. That's the only documentary (so far) that's ever made me cry. EXCEPT for a Morris documentary I forgot, Gates Of Heaven. Dead pets can break anyone down.

sidney_falco

Vernon, FL is an interesting movie too.  It only runs about an hour and it's basically a conglomeration of backwoods philosophy.  Very interesting movie.  The story I've heard is that Errol Morris came there because there were stories of people cutting off their limbs for insurance money.  Morris shot his movie there and then he started getting death threats from the people, so he decided to focus more on their philosophy and completely abandon the original premise.  Still turned into an excellent movie.  I went to school a couple hours east of Vernon, so we had to drop in on it one day.  Not much has changed.

cine

If sidney didn't bring it up, I was going to: "Gates of Heaven" is a classic documentary. Anybody here know the story of Herzog telling Morris that if he makes a picture, that legendary visionary would eat his own shoe?  And then of course, "Gates" was made and the rest was history.. Les Blank, the documentarian who fade "Burden of Dreams", the doc on "Fitzcarraldo", made a doc called "Werner Herzog Eats His Own Shoe".. I haven't seen it but its supposed to be wonderful. Herzog eats his shoe while talking about life and such. Other brilliant docs I like were "Shoah", "Hoop Dreams", and as MacGuffin already mentioned: "Crumb", which I was watching again on TV today.

Find Your Magali

Some other great docs:

Salesman (great Criterion edition)
Startup.com
Sherman's March (can we consider that a doc?)
American Movie

Two other thoughts:
1. There NEEDS to be Thin Blue Line DVD, dammit
2. The amazing Shoah is coming out in September on DVD

Xixax

Sundance is such a great source for documentaries. I saw a great one last night about "cane toads" in Australia.

Documentaries, when they're well made, just suck me in. A good documentarian could make me sit through 2 hours of baking a cake and I'd love every second of it.
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dufresne

i also haven't seen The Thin Blue Line.  someone let me borrow their copy.

best tagline ever.
There are shadows in life, baby.

snaporaz

Quote from: dufresnebest tagline ever.

yessir.

Pubrick

yeah errol morris is a great filmmaker.. look at this trivia for The Thin Blue Line:

-The release of this film, resulted in Randall Adams' case being reopened. He was exonerated.

that's common knowledge and is testament to the quality of the film, but apparently:

- After Randall Adams was released from prison because of new evidence in the film, he sued the director of the film for allegedly misrepresenting him.

is this for real? what an ungrateful fucko, seriously tho. what the eff.
under the paving stones.