Rating: 
Summary: Art is not photography
Review: Art is not photography Man Ray amended as he grew wiser. As a youthful contrarian he'd claimed that photography is not art -he'd relented a bit. Ross McElwee's "Sherman's March" is the first film that convinced me that while cinema can't be art (there are hundreds of craftsmen assembling it along the way)it can rouse the soul if the director is the lead actor, writer, cameraman, lighting specialist....Imagine Mr. McElwee walking about the South ruminating about lost loves with no technical help, running into the most ditzy women and actually including them in his film with no interview or casting couch! Here we have the second greatest story ever told. But let me not overstate. One must see his other films for everything to dovetail and astonish. If you are literate, please study this man's work.
Rating:
Summary: Art is not photography
Review: Art is not photography Man Ray amended as he grew wiser. As a youthful contrarian he'd claimed that photography is not art -he'd relented a bit. Ross McElwee's "Sherman's March" is the first film that convinced me that while cinema can't be art (there are hundreds of craftsmen assembling it along the way)it can rouse the soul if the director is the lead actor, writer, cameraman, lighting specialist....Imagine Mr. McElwee walking about the South ruminating about lost loves with no technical help, running into the most ditzy women and actually including them in his film with no interview or casting couch! Here we have the second greatest story ever told. But let me not overstate. One must see his other films for everything to dovetail and astonish. If you are literate, please study this man's work.
Rating:
Summary: Art is not photography
Review: Art is not photography Man Ray amended as he grew wiser. As a youthful contrarian he'd claimed that photography is not art -he'd relented a bit. Ross McElwee's "Sherman's March" is the first film that convinced me that while cinema can't be art (there are hundreds of craftsmen assembling it along the way)it can rouse the soul if the director is the lead actor, writer, cameraman, lighting specialist....Imagine Mr. McElwee walking about the South ruminating about lost loves with no technical help, running into the most ditzy women and actually including them in his film with no interview or casting couch! Here we have the second greatest story ever told. But let me not overstate. One must see his other films for everything to dovetail and astonish. If you are literate, please study this man's work.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful curve ball of a film
Review: As the subtitle of this marvelous documentary (?) hints, this is a wildly improbable movie. There actually is little that one can say about the content of it, since its substance lies in its execution and collection of odd and bizarre moments, not in what it has to say. Ross McElwee obtains a grant to make a documentary about the lingering effects of Sherman's march through Georgia in the Civil War, but instead keeps getting sidetracked and obsessed by women he meets along the way. Occasionally it occurs to him that he ought to stop shooting film of the women he yearns for and start worrying about Sherman, but he never can quite force his attention in that direction. The movie may start off as a documentary on SHERMAN'S MARCH, but it morphs quite rapidly in the film's subtitle: AN IMPROBABLE SEARCH FOR LOVE.
I'm not quite sure that this film can truly be categorized as a documentary: it is more of a confessional, an exploration of the McElwee's desire for love. I think it will feel uncomfortably familiar for many of its viewers in a way that a fictional account of the search for love could never be.
Rating: 
Summary: Ultimately Failed to Deliver.
Review: Considered by many to be a classic in the genre, Sherman's March is the 155 minute personal contemplation of filmmaker, Ross McElwee, regarding his love-life. Though he originally intended to make a documentary about the Northern Civil War's General William Tecumseh Sherman, a figure still much-loathed in the South, instead he cranks out a ponderous study of his romantic dealings with various Southern women. McElwee's film is not without charm. There is a very funny subplot regarding Burt Reynolds that culminates in a hilarious encounter on the set of The Cannonball Run. And McElwee is not without self-insight into his own sad-sack existence. But ultimately, his film suffers from the fact that he has made a terrible mistake as a documentarian: his has made himself the subject, and he is not intrinsically interesting. McElwee could have succeeded in making some sort of study on the war of the sexes or a wry comedy of errors, but his total solipsism prevents the audience from ever really thinking about anything but him. What makes it worse is that McElwee is a problematic protagonist. One can clearly read how he wants to come off, but I, a single woman, found his transparency off-putting. Instead of being witty, he's pedantic. Instead of being thoughtful, he's so wrapped up in these silly encounters that any intelligent woman watching cannot but help but conclude that McElwee is shooting his own foot. He is attracted to stupid and terrible women who are totally without character or depth. A strange combination of pretention and yet utter superficiality characterize both McElwee and his film. Had he been a bigger man, or a more skilled documentarian, his film could easily have become one worth recommending.
Rating:
Summary: A Taste of Southern Culture
Review: I felt as if Ross and I were filming this movie together. A must see for anyone from the south and for anyone from the north who is interested in the south.
Rating:
Summary: A Taste of Southern Culture
Review: I felt as if Ross and I were filming this movie together. A must see for anyone from the south and for anyone from the north who is interested in the south.
Rating: 
Summary: I'll take this over reality TV anytime!
Review: I saw this film for the first time with my wife, Andrea. Our reactions were mixed. I loved it. I was fascinated by the characters, and the by the not-so-subtle way in which the intellectual pursuits of a scholar are subordinated to his personal life and hang-ups. As an academic who is often painfully aware of the overlap between my life and my work it was refreshing to see this overlap admitted so openly -- even embraced to the point where it becomes the subject matter of the entire investigation.
My wife, on the other hand, was bothered by what she saw as Mr. McElwee's pretentiousness, and his exploitation of the women in the film. It is true that all of them were more or less willing participants -- and a commmon feature of each of them was that they were in some way entertainers who were interested in being seen -- still, she thought, the very fact that they revealed themselves and he could step back and observe and judge set up what she saw as an unequal situation. Having said that, she did admit that the film held an undeniable fascination for her.
As it turned out, we talked about the film on and off for the next few days, even comparing people we know and ourselves to the characters revealed there. That is, I think, one of the signs that the film was effective. In a time when most films, and certainly to my mind all of reality TV, are forgettable, this film is not. I think Mr. McElwee sets himself up to be vulnerable to the criticisms my wife suggests -- and does not shy away from them. As a character, and as narrator of his own story, he is neither hero nor villian but is a real person, and that is what makes his stories interesting.
I can't wait to see the other films he has made -- like Time Indefinite and, most recently, Bright Leaves that is currently in (selected) theatres.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute original......
Review: I was glad to finally locate this underground classic, and it was worth the wait. While most documentaries take few risks and present talking heads, Ross McElwee dares to tell a subjective, off-the-wall story of loneliness and love, using Sherman's March to the Sea as an outline. Funny, insightful, and full of rich characterizations (except these people are the real deal), this film needs to be seen by a new generation of film lovers. Despite its 2 1/2 hour length, it is brisk and I must say, I was NEVER bored. Quite simply, a brilliant charmer.
Rating:
Summary: quiet clarity
Review: Ignore those who don't get Ross's schtick. It's transfixing. Ross's stream of conscious commentary on his life as it unfolds in front of his camera lens has a rare clarity and simple unaffected profoundness.
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