Product Description

THE ROSS McELWEE DVD COLLECTION

Six Films Including Four Never Before Released on DVD! Plus One Hour of Exclusive Bonus Material!

TITLES INCLUDED:

CHARLEEN, 59 minutes, 1978
One month in the life of Charleen Swansea, North Carolina poet, mother, beloved teacher, eccentric, romantic, and complex star of McElwee's Sherman's March.

BACKYARD, 40 minutes, 1984
The result of McElwee turning his camera on his family and their neighbors, the film is a humorous and poignant look at odd moments in a genteel Southern town.

SHERMAN'S MARCH, 155 minutes, 1986
Chosen by the Library of Congress as a "historically significant American motion picture," Sherman's March, one of the first high grossing documentaries ever, is "an autobiographic quest for true romance: filmmaker Ross McElwee, camera in hand and eros on his mind after an old girlfriend deserts him, trains his lens with phallic resolve on every accessible women he meets along the original route of General Sherman's Civil War March." (Pat Graham, Chicago Reader's Circle)

TIME INDEFINITE, 117 minutes, 1993
McElwee, Charleen Swansea, and several other memorable characters you met in Sherman's March invite you to pick up their story in Time Indefinite, McElwee's hilariously profound sequel to his much-beloved, critically acclaimed hit. When McElwee announces at the family gathering in South Carolina that he's going to marry a nice Jewish girl from Boston, the results are memorable. A series of unexpected bumps along life's road add a poignant, wistful quality to McElwee's chronicle.

SIX O'CLOCK NEWS, 103 minutes, 1997
McElwee pursues murder, mayhem and catastrophe the same way he pursued southern women in Sherman's March. Made after McElwee becomes a father and finds himself at home watching a lot more TV, he becomes obsessed with the nightly tales of calamity reported on by the local news. This fascination soon turns into another cross country journey to unearth the full stories of those affected. As McElwee pursues this project he also finds himself in Hollywood preparing to direct a feature based on a fictional character much like himself.

BRIGHT LEAVES, 105 minutes, 2004
McElwee family legend has it that the Hollywood melodrama Bright Leaf starring Gary Cooper as a 19th century tobacco grower, is based on McElwee's great-grandfather who created the famous "Bull Durham" brand. Using this legacy as a jumping off point, McElwee reaches back to his roots in this wry, witty rumination on American History, the tobacco business, and the myth of cinema.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47468 in DVD
• Brand: Ross
• Released on: 2005-11-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 578 minutes

Review
McElwee's sense of the absurd, combined with a genuine affection for his subject, makes him one of the most fascinating filmmakers working and one of those rare filmmakers for whom the word visionary is appropriate. --Boston Globe

Review
Accept no imitations: A film by Ross McElwee could be made by no other.
Since his hilarious autobiographical breakthrough, SHERMAN'S MARCH, the profound artist-philosopher has been using his own life as a springboard to examine humankind's biggest issues, and tiniest. McElwee makes movies the way life might, ideally, be lived. --Entertainment Weekly

Review
This most unusual of filmmakers makes intensely personal documentaries that are more like home movies of the soul. --USA Today

Customer Reviews

Loses a star for an unfortunate FACTORY DEFECT
This is a long-overdue DVD collection assembling the work of one of America's true hidden treasures, documentary filmmaker Ross McElwee. McElwee, a genteel Southern neurotic (think Woody Allen meets Tennessee Williams) has essentially been documenting his personal life since the mid 70's and managed to turn all those thousands of feet of footage into some of the most simultaneously original, hilarious, moving, thought-provoking and entertaining films that most people have never seen. Audiences weaned on the glut of "reality TV" of recent years may shrug thier shoulders and say "what's the big deal about one more schmuck making glorified home movies?" but they would be missing an enriching glimpse into the human condition. In addition to a couple of McElwee's more rarely screened early works- his debut "Backyard" and "Charleen", you get two bonifide classics about the eternal search for love and acceptance-"Sherman's March" and its unofficial "sequel", "Time Indefinite" plus his masterful meditation on the random cruelty of fate, "Six O'Clock News". NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS: First let me tell you that I own two DVD players-one is a standard Region 1, and the other an "all region". Here is what I have experienced with the film "Bright Leaves" (McElwee's most recent film included in the box). Straight and simple-IT DOES NOT PLAY. This is my conclusion after renting 2 (that is TWO) different copies of the "stand alone" release by this studio from my local video store. Neither one played past the FBI Warning (on EITHER of my 2 players). I also RENTED this boxed set as opposed to purchasing, because I was wary, and sure enough, the version of "Bright Leaves" included in the box set ALSO DOES NOT PLAY. I hope someone from the releasing studio reads this and addresses this obvious problem. It's keeping this eager consumer from investing in the box set, as much as I would love to own it. Have any other Amazon reviewers encountered this issue?

The Gold Standard
Ross McElwee is the Gold Standard of personal film documentarians. His low tech approach (he's a one-man operation) allows him easy access to a scene that might otherwise be distracted or compromised by a crew. But what makes his films memorable is his kind-hearted, dead-pan wit.

This collection is a great film school for aspiring documentarians now that digital technology has made his method available to practically everyone. He shows how focusing on the mundane aspects of life add up, illuminating the profound.

BTW, to reviewer D.Hartley, all my disks, which I bought through Amazon.com, play with no problem.

Leaves defect?
I own the Bright Leaves disc (standalone) and did not experience any problems. If you're not up on Ross, definitely check out this box. He is one of a kind.