Cinema-Scene.com > Volume 6 > Number 34 |
Director: Starring: Release: 25 Aug. 04
|
Bright Leaves BY: DAVID PERRY
Brought back to the South after his mother worries that his
sickly frame is from too much northern exposure, Ross McElwee takes on his
own family history, a story of riches and poverty, of innovation and
disappointment. More than anything, he finds that his great-grandfather, the
creator of the formula for Bull Durham tobacco, may have been the subject of
the 1950 melodrama Bright Leaf, “a cinematic heirloom, a home movie
reenacted by Hollywood stars.” In it, his ancestor could be the character
played by Gary Cooper, who makes a fortune in the antebellum tobacco
industry in North Carolina before falling under the tutelage of his seedy
competitor. There was a real competitor, and by the midpoint of Bright
Leaves, one might be compelled to call Buck Duke reality’s Snidely Whiplash. |
|
©2004, David Perry, Cinema-Scene.com, 20 August 2004 |