America's Heart and Soulreview by Lisa Ann Cockrel |
posted 7/02/2004
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For millions of Americans, summer is synonymous with road trips. But if you're balking at rising gas prices, consider loading the family up and heading to your local movie theater to explore America on the big screen.
More than 10 years in the making, America's Heart and Soul criss-crosses the nation profiling everyday people doing what they do every day. People like Roudy Roudebush, the last cowboy in Telluride, Colorado—and the first of 24 vignettes that make up this film. Roudy fits the gruff cowboy stereotype to a tee, complete with bushy mustache and a horse he actually rides into his local saloon (to drink water; he's a recovering alcoholic). Admittedly, I could feel the cynicism building in my esophagus. "C'mon! A cowboy? Puh-leese." But when the camera captured Roudy riding along the ridge of his mountain ranch I was confronted with a scene so beautiful I couldn't help but give into the slightly sappy Americana. "These mountains are an inspiration to me on a daily basis. You feel deep roots when you live on the Continental Divide for 30 years. It's the backbone of America and maybe it makes me strong just looking at it." So much for the snark.
America's Heart and Soul reverberates with a keen sense of place. It's palpable in the Cajun drawl of Marc Savoy, who lives in Louisiana on land that's been in his family for over 250 years. His children are the seventh generation living on the property, and when Marc and his wife Ann sit in the front yard with friends and family and play their guitars and accordions, it's clear there's an ethos in such living that's hard to duplicate in suburban subdivisions.
Vermont dairy farmer George Woodard leads a very full life
Over and over, director Louis Schwartzberg features people, more than 25 in all, doing something that's specific to the land they inhabit: a wine grower tends his fields of grapes, a bike messenger makes the streets of New York City his playground, a group of rock climbers anchor themselves in and dance on the side of a cliff. One of my favorite profiles is of George Woodard, a dairy farmer in Waterbury Center, Vermont with a singing voice like James Taylor who enjoys acting with a local theater group and making his own movies around his farm. Woodard spent some time in L.A. trying to make it as an actor but the single father eventually moved back to the family farm to raise his son. "One of the great things about having a small farm is you get to see your child grow up … I loved L.A. It was great. But this works on a small scale, and that seems to be enough, for me anyway."
And then there are people like Minnie Yancey for whom the hollers of Kentucky don't so much dictate how she lives her life as much as inform who she is at her core. "How do you know I'm a mountain person? Well cut me open right here and pull that back and look right in there. You won't see a heart. What you'll see is a mountain range, mist hanging in the hills. That's my heart."
Michael Bennett and one of the kids he mentors
You understand exactly what she means when her words are accompanied by Schwartzberg's breathtaking cinematography. More than anything, it's the scenery that serves as the narrator for this documentary. With every frame it silently suggests the greatness and the beauty at our fingertips.
It's no coincidence that Disney chose the July 4th weekend to release America's Heart and Soul. The American flag is a frequently recurring sight and the movie exhales patriotism, but Schwartzberg is careful to point out that this movie isn't about capitalizing off the war on terrorism. "I did all the filming prior to 9/11. So I wasn't trying to capitalize on any kind of patriotic fervor that occurred right after that. If there's an American flag in a scene—whether it's on a barn or an inner-city ghetto—it's real, just part of the heart of America." (Read our full interview with Schwartzberg.)
What I don't care for is this movie's uneven pacing. The first half is quite cohesive in format and style, but the second half introduces new visual effects and at least one mini-profile that seem to throw off the movie's rhythm. America's Heart and Soul is also a bit long in my estimation. As interesting as many of those profiled are, I started to get restless after a little more than an hour. Shaving 20 minutes from the running time would have helped.
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