Product Description

This listing is for sale to individuals for private use, video rental stores and small libraries.

Included in the DANCING OUTLAW DVD:

- The OriginalDANCING OUTLAW Director's Edition, 60 minutes (Includes the original Outtakes, 30 minutes

- The Original DANCING OUTLAW II: Jesco Goes To Hollywood, 30 minutes

This unscripted, strikingly unique documentary film, is a revealing portrait of the nearly extinct "Hillbilly" culture that focuses on Mountain Dancer Jesco White's uphill battle against abject poverty, drug abuse, petty crime and mental instability. In his struggle to live up to his father's legacy as the finest mountain dancer in Appalachia, he leans on Jesus, Elvis Presley, and his wife, Norma Jean.

DANCING OUTLAW has screened at several major events, including the Sundance Film Festival.

Winner of 7 major awards, including:
Best Public Television Program
1992 Emmy Award
American Film Institute Award.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22990 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-06-15
• Formats: Full Screen, NTSC
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 89 minutes

Oxford American Magazine, Southern Movie Issue, Winter 2002
Oxford American Magazine lists DANCING OUTLAW as one of the "13 Essential Southern Documentaries".

American Library Association
DANCING OUTLAW is on the "Core List", a "short list of best and brightest works of non-feature videos".

Film Threat, August 9, 2003
"Dancing Outlaw is" "a cult screen legend" and "a white trash classic!"

Customer Reviews

A "Must Own" DVD
Dancing Outlaw is a classic documentary of a tap dancer and Elvis impersonator from Boone County, West Virginia. The documentary is both comical and sad but it gives a glimpse of life that you probably would not believe unless you saw it. I've first saw a dubbed version of this video several years ago that was of rather poor quality. I recently found "Dancing Outlaw" as well as "Dancing Outlaw II, Jesco Goes To Hollywood" both on a single DVD. The DVD is available for $49.95 on www.dancingoutlaw.com. I purchased the DVD and have now viewed the recently released DVD and it is of much better quality that the VHS tape and offers all the advantages of DVD including the viewing quality not diminishing with use and time.

What Amazon does not tell you in the above description is this DVD includes both "Dancing Outlaw" and "Dancing Outlaw II: Jesco Goes to Hollywood" and the video viewing time is 101 minutes. Still $99 is too much to pay when you can get the identical video directly from the producer for 1/2 the price.

I own a copy and I highly recommend it.

Great kitsch video
The Dancing Outlaw is a great video documentary which goes through the quotidian routine of a very abnormal man--Jesco White. He has coined himself the "last mountain dancer" and does a form of tap dancing set to old-timey country music (mainly, The Wildwood Flower.) Where the video is so interesting is in its portrayal of his obvious mental illness(es) including his split personality syndrome (Jesco/Jesse/Elvis,) his dysfunctional and somewhat abusive relationship with his wife Norma, and his brain damage from huffing too much lighter fluid in his troubled youth. You'll see what he does for fun (mud bogging, etc) and basically explore all the areas of this man's life. Even with the obvious humor, it is presented in a very artistic fashion, leaving an intelligent viewer to question how someone from dirt poor roots with this level of mental illness could still exist in this day and age. Yet even more puzzling is that he seems very happy with what most people would consider a pathetic life.

However, most people with whom I've seen the documentary totally miss the social commentary and treat it as a comedy. "Ha ha look at those dumb hillbillies" and "wow West Virginia must be a really weird place" kinds of reactions. If that's all you take from the documentary, you're the unsophisticated one. Do not make broad generalizations about the people of Appalachia or of working-class and rural populations based on the film.

The best 25 minute biographical film ever made
I had the world DVD premiere for this film in February 2005 at the South Charleston Museum in South Charleston, WV. Hundreds showed up - and for good reason. It is the best selling film ever made inside West Virginia - about a West Virginian. It is also the best short documentary about an unusual man and his life ever made, making my Top Ten list of all times - in Facets Multimedia. The director, Jacob Young, watched films by Les Blank and Errol Morris, and using some of their style and his own, created a masterpiece. At one time the state library of West Virginia had at least 8 copies of this film, loaning all of them out for a decade or more. It is hilarious, sad, tragic, insightful - and about everything else one can show in a film. It stands with any film, including Errol Morris' masterpieces like THE FOG OF WAR.