A documentary film directed by Louis Schwartzberg that features interviews and scenes from around the United States. The editing by Brian Funck and Tom McGah is well done as none of the segments lasted too long or left me wanting more. The segments covered several different cultures and traditions, both sacred and secular. My only real complaint was the lack of any Asian American segments. Several segments featured music and I appreciated those. The film did leave me with a sense of incompleteness, as it barely touched the cool things that happen in American everyday. As documentary films go, I think this one is worth your time.

Beautiful, but confused at what it was trying to accomplish. It tried to hard to make things come together, but it never did. It was on Disney+.

Pretty good graphics! Watched it in my economics class, and it was alright, but not one of the best I've seen!!!

(First and only viewing - In my mid-twenties)

It was alright. The opening sequence was neat, but the movie got boring after awhile. I think its way too long. Some segments were more interesting than others. I probably wouldn't care to watch the whole thing again.

Pretty good graphics! Watched it in my economics class, and it was alright, but not one of the best I've seen!!!

[b]America is F'n Great![/b] In 2004 [i]America's Heart and Soul[/i] was supposed to be the antithesis to Michael Moore's [i]Farenheit 9/11[/i]. The problem was the film ended up being critically trashed and then nobody bothered to see it. (It made a paltry $300 thousand next to the record breaking [i]9/11's[/i] $119 million.) Before it was released, I remember being intrigued by the trailer for it, I thought it looked like a film at least worth seeing. But after it came out without a whimper I forgot about it. When looking for documentaries to watch for this column I stuck it in my Netflix list with little thought. While putting it in my DVD player, I had the feint memories of the trailer playing in my mind, remember that it was something that I wanted to see at one point. What hit me immediately was how gorgeous the film was. I'm a sucker for beautiful photography and time lapse. Two things that [i]America's Heart and Soul[/i] filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg obviously excels at. So I got into the film immediately. Another thing I'm a guillible for is oddball, eccentric, and charismatic folks. The first of many people Louis decides to point his camera at is Roudy Roudebush, a real life cowboy from Telluride, Colorado. He's a man with a real lust for life and that shines through immediately. As soon as I started thinking, "oh cool, we're going to ride with this dude for a while", the film quickly shifts gears to a Cajun musician from Louisiana. He's also a fairly interesting guy, but I'm already missing Roudy. Next thing I know we're onto an old woman gospel singer, who's praising Jesus for how great life in America is... and suddenly I know what the critics were talking about. [img]http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/truth/images/roudy.jpg[/img] Roudy Roudebush in all of America's majesticness. Every five minutes or so we're introduced to another character in the American quilt-work of society. Most of them are worth spending some time with: a NYC bike messenger with a death wish, an explosives artist from Colorado, cliff dancers from California, an acrobatic flyer from Florida and on and on. The only subject that the average viewer would know anything about is Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, but we barely spend even two minutes with him. And that's one of the film's big problems, all these people deserve more. Each is worthy of much more digging, the films barely scratches the surface of who these people are before moving on to the next. And the underlying theme of it all is, "damn, ain't the U.S. of A. a fantastic place to live!" The film is full of quotes like: "Cherish your freedom." "Finding your passion in life is very important." "I've been broke many times in my life, but I've never been poor." For this cynic it was getting to be too much. There is only one moment in the entire film, where it looks like America isn't the absolute perfection of society. We meet some West Virginian steel workers who are losing their jobs overseas, but even that turns into the American dream, these guys buy the steel plant and make it a wonderful place to work, where their insurance saves pretty little girls from dying. After a while, even the superb photography started to grate me the wrong way. Instead of simply being pretty, it started to feel like the beauty of our country was being shoved down my throat. There are no blemishes, everything is perfect, country or city, rich or poor. When we all damn well know it isn't. That sort of idea doesn't fly these days. Even the Cleavers may have found this film too syrupy. [img]http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/truth/images/louis.jpg[/img] Filmmaker Louis Schwarzberg The thing is though, I could tell that this isn't what filmmaker Louis Schwartzberg, was trying to portray when he set out to make the film. I think he simply wanted to make a film about how good life can get, that there are nice things in the world. He was trying to capture the elusive American dream in all its aspects. It's not a bad idea for a film. But somewhere along the way, he swallowed the Kool-Aid and sent the film awry. The Republican Party snuck into the editing room, beat him over the head, and cut the film based on how they thought America should be portrayed. Near the end of the film, they even throw in a happy montage to Smash Mouth's [i]All Star[/i]. A trend I thought was over. Can we please put a stop to the madness! From time to time, the rosy filter would drop, a real moment would cheat through and it would give me chills. If the entire film managed to be honest like this [i]America's Heart and Soul[/i] might have been an instant classic. However, for the majority of the film, we're looking at America as it only exists in Chevy commercials.

9/11 - I have no use for propaganda. The less objective something is, the less credible. Moore and Hannity say they are not objective, which is not only disturbing, but a waste of my time. I want the truth, not an entertaining polemic. Anchorman - Sky Rockets in Flight!...What else was funny? I, Robot - For a Will Smith action movie, not only was it entertaining, but is was smart as well. Heart and Soul - Celebrating America through very intersting and very different people this county houses. Spider-Man 2 - I was not to crazy about this one, but it better than the first.

A movie about the real America the liberal media does not want you to see including Disney. Check the showing times, its only showing in limited areas with limited times. I've never seen a limited distribution like this with any Disney flick.

If you love America and what makes it great, this is the perfect movie.

:fresh: Great Movie! Unlike the Michael Moore movie which is totally opposite! What a Moore-On and Fat lier he's turned out to be.

At a time when we're challenged by so many things as a nation, being cynical has become a pastime, especially at the movies. Somebody always has to win. There's always a good guy and a bad guy. Then along comes America's Heart and Soul. This film captivates viewers in a way I've not really experienced since Baraka. Stories of simple American lives from the Vermont dairy farmer who moonlights as Dracula in a musical production to the ex-con U.S. Olympic boxer to the guy in Creed Colorado who fires luncheon meat from a cannon, to the blind mountaineer summiting Everest, this is the America to be celebrated. People speak for themselves This isn't the divisive America in an election year. It's Louis Schwartzberg's beautiful view of America's changing seasons and light cast on individuals laughing, playing music, singing and rejoicing. This is not just a film that could win best documentary, but best cinematography and best original song - a fantastic John Mellencamp ditty. Seeing this film is a PRIORITY this summer. Take your friends and family. Go twice. Everybody will identify with something on the screen and will likely pinpoint a few things they love. American's Heart and Soul makes me want to take my family on the road and see as much of this nation's landscape as possible, enriching our lives with the experience of seeing the world through other people's eyes. Give it a chance and you'll feel the same way.:fresh:

That Greatest Film tournament I began a few months ago, and subsequently spammed in my journal and elsewhere, is finally coming to a close. So, it's time to spam about it one last time. [b]Pre-30s Final[/b] Metropolis (1927, Lang) vs. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Dreyer) [b] 1930s Final[/b] Rules of the Game (1939, Renoir) vs. M (1931, Lang) [b] 1940s Final[/b] Casablanca (1942, Curtiz) vs. Citizen Kane (1941, Welles) [b] 1950s Final[/b] Rear Window (1954, Hitchcock) vs. Sunset Blvd. (1950, Wilder) [b] 1960s Final[/b] Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, Kubrick) vs. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick) [b] 1970s Final[/b] The Godfather (1972, Coppola) vs. Apocalypse Now (1979, Coppola) [b] 1980s Final[/b] Empire Strikes Back (1980, Kershner) vs. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981, Spielberg) [b] 1990s Final[/b] Pulp Fiction (1994, Tarantino) vs. Schindler's List (1993, Spielberg) They will go on for a week, so take your time. [url="http://www.chrc4work.com/vine/showthread.php?t=323472"]http://www.chrc4work.com/vine/showthread.php?t=323472[/url] ------- I'm really bummed this week. Some of you might remember me discussing this really cool indie theater that opened here last year. It had a good selection of film, was on the north side of Atlanta, plus served beer and higher quality popcorn and other concessions. It was a film junkie's dream and I promptly purchased an annual membership. They closed down last week, after about a year. I really don't know why. They always seemed to do decent business, but they had just overall really sucked over the prior 2 months. They only got mainstream-fare films, like Laws of Attraction and Mean Girls, and they really didn't change their titles over. This is the place where I saw the Cabinet of Caligari with a live band, and they were going to have the TCM series with all those Kubrick films. Not to mention, they actually did get a good selection of indie stuff that usually wouldn't even open in the city. So now we're down to 3 indie/arthouse theaters. One is downtown in midtown, Landmark, which isn't too far, but kind of a pain to get to. Right now they get all the best films and will probably take most of my dollar. The Tara cinema on the East side of town has four screens with usually pretty decent films, but they don't cycle enough. The stuff playing there now I've already seen. Lefont is one of my favorites, but they only have 1 screen, usually playing a foreign film I like to see. This is where I saw Dogville and Barbarian Invasions. This is still a decent indie town, but I can't help but be bummed. ------- I really like The Secret Machines, Now Here is Nowhere. [img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002234H2.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img] Also, Sonic Nurse is finally coming out. I've been loving it for a couple months now, and looking forward to the official release. It's up there with Murray Street and a peg below Daydream Nation. Probably a top-5 Youth album overall. [img]http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000255LAM.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg[/img][b] -------- [/b]Movies? Yeah, I saw a couple, but I'm kinda talked out on them. America's Heart & Soul was a nice surprise. Life of Brian was a lot of fun. Having a full audience really enhances the Monty Python experience. It's strange how we feel more comfortable laughing when others are laughing out loud around us. It made this probably the most enjoyable experience with the film, and I've seen it a gazillion times already. At the end of the show, someone yelled out "Suck it Gibson!". I smiled. -------- My Napoleon Dynamite review is online: [url="http://aaronfilms.tripod.com/films/napoleon.htm"]http://aaronfilms.tripod.com/films/napoleon.htm[/url] -------- I'm not usually the "whoring votes" type, but I'm facing Alex Weitzman in Battle of the Posters at the moment. I don't expect to win, and I'm not expecting you to vote for me. I mean, this is Alex Weitzman after all. But, if you don't mind, please say my name a couple times to keep it from being an ass shredding. [url="http://www.chrc4work.com/vine/showthread.php?t=339793"]http://www.chrc4work.com/vine/showthread.php?t=339793[/url]