Filmmaker Ross McElwee made his reputation in 1986 with the wonderful “Sherman’s March,” a wry and funny look at his own love life. He undertook the project with the idea of doing a historical documentary about the real General Sherman, but got distracted by the interesting women he met and his own sense of loneliness.
McElwee is a professor at Harvard, but his North Carolina roots have always played a big part in his movies. In “Bright Leaves,” he travels south again, to look into a piece of family history.
McElwee’s great-grandfather, John Harvey McElwee, was a tobacco magnate who lost his place in the industry after a bitter battle with archrival James “Buck” Duke. The Duke family went on to build a dynasty and have a university named after them; the McElwees got a tiny park in their hometown.
At the beginning of “Bright Leaves,” McElwee takes his camera to visit a movie-nut second cousin. The cousin says that one of the movies in his vast collection, “Bright Leaf,” a 1950 film with Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, is actually about their great-grandfather and his losing fight in the tobacco wars.
This fascinates McElwee, who promptly begins browsing through family history, Hollywood lore and tobacco culture.
He gazes wanly at the huge Duke mansion, and can’t help thinking that “If things had gone slightly differently, this would have been all mine.” His ancestor, after all, came up with the formula for Bull Durham tobacco, and later spent a fortune suing the Duke family for allegedly stealing it. (He lost.)
McElwee is conflicted over the economic boon tobacco gives his home state and the death toll that directly results from cigarette smoking. It’s not his style to be pushy, however, and he lets the facts speak for themselves.
Since his father was a doctor (and his brother inherited the practice), McElwee tries to link lung cancer with his family. It’s too much of a stretch, but it results in some touching moments in which old patients recall the elder Dr. McElwee.
Patricia Neal happens to appear at a North Carolina festival, and McElwee interviews her. But it doesn’t help his cause.
“Bright Leaves” doesn’t have the momentum of “Sherman’s March,” probably because it ranges over different subjects. But it has the pleasing quality of someone musing on interesting questions, someone analytical enough to wonder why pointing a camera at the world is as big a narcotic as cigarette smoke.
“Bright Leaves” HHH
Pleasing: Filmmaker Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) etches another wry look at his world, this time examining his North Carolina ancestors and their involvement in founding the tobacco industry.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for subject matter.
Now showing: Varsity.
“Bright Leaves” HHH
Pleasing: Filmmaker Ross McElwee (“Sherman’s March”) etches another wry look at his world, this time examining his North Carolina ancestors and their involvement in founding the tobacco industry.
Rated: Not rated; probably PG-13 for subject matter.
Now showing: Varsity.
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