Bisbee '17

It was alluded to in the movie, but was ultimately not portrayed. What happened to the deportees? Look it up and you will find out that some deportees MADE money from their deportation. There was a class action lawsuit with such substantial settlements that some bought ranches, started businesses, etc. Just wondering why this wasn't portrayed in the movie?

Also, some deportees might have been emotionally damaged and moved around afterward, not being able to settle. Yet, if you read their prior history, they were moving around before. This was the Wild West after all.

One more thing - Anarchists and Communists we're running riot throughout the country and the world. They were a real threat.

BISBEE '17 (2018) - Part Documentary, Part Performance Art, Robert Greene's movie tells the tale of an Arizona mining town which, in 1917, forcibly expelled over 1,300 striking miners. The mining company, Phelps Dodge, conspired with local law enforcement to deputize hundreds upon hundreds of the local citizenry to enforce the deportation at gunpoint, threatening the workers with death should they ever return. To commemorate the centennial, Greene and his filmmakers staged a reenactment of the events and filmed it using locals as the 'cast'. From the very first shot of a school custodian directing his co-workers to get out of his shot, BISBEE '17 makes no secret of blurring the lines between filmmaker and subjects. The current occupants of the dying town (the mines have been shut for decades) range from relative newcomers, to direct descendants of the events of 1917 (in one case a family where one brother arrested his own sibling) to a retired exec of Phelps Dodge, who, unsurprisingly still defends the company's actions. As many of the workers who were deported were minorities, the symbolism with present day immigration struggles are never far from the surface - Arizona being a particular hotspot. As the 'actors' are being cast as specific individuals for the re-enactment, we garner details of what happened to not only those persons, but, in the town itself. The format is sure to offend Documentary purists, but it does make for an engrossing movie. Still, its overlong and one can certainly question how effective it is in truly bringing out the facts of what happened a century prior. Further, when do finally get to the re-enactment, it isn't nearly as forceful as one would like, what with the Documentary crew being visible during the crowd scenes, and the somewhat scattershot editing. BISBEE '17 is an effective history lesson, if unorthodox. It calls to mind the even more powerful AN ACT OF KILLING (the 2012 Doc about Indonesia) and the more 'pure' 2017 SPETTACOLO (by the Director of MARWENCOL) which was about a town in Italy which has bee putting on annual plays with its locals for decades. Greene's Documentary puts the spotlight on a little known historical event, even if one has to struggle with its POV.

The film makers took an interesting historical incident and in an effort to add "drama" or something ended up with a boring series of meandering shots that left me actually asking the television if we could please get on with the story. It opens with a long shot of a guy standing alone in front of an empty school building first asking some guy to keep everyone quiet and out of the shot, then stands there doing and saying nothing for what seems like forever and the rest proceeds at the same snails pace. When they got to some weird side story about Tombstone, AZ and how they're "Second Amendment City" I finally gave up. Apparently it is possible to make someone stop caring about a story simply through bad self-indulgent film making. Just read the Wikipedia article and you'll get the gist without all the "Indie Film" foolishness.

Set in Bisbee, Arizona, this film both documents the Bisbee Deportation as well as residents' views today. The town of Bisbee was ripped apart by the deportation, and 100 years later it is still divisive. This movie may not only tell this important story but also, finally, provide the town with some healing.

I would have preferred a little less re-enactment and a little more history. What were the fates of the deportees? Did any deportees return? How many persons were indicted? How many indictments led to trials, and how many trials led to convictions? The interviews with present-day townspeople are interesting, though.