Sweetgrass

Have disagree with the reviewer who said this was not an accurate portrayal of sheep and shepherds. There are different management practices and this movie depicted one of them. These folks shear in late winter and lamb in the spring. Shearing before lambing is done for several reasons--less moisture in the barn from long, wet wool; easier for the lambs to find the udder when it isn't buried in wool. In my experience with sheep, I've found that ewes definitely find their lambs both by sound and by smell. That's why they are put in small pens, called jugs, for a day or so after lambing so that they can bond and learn to recognize each other's unique sound and smell. That's why the ewes will reject any lamb that doesn't smell or sound like their own. I thought the movie was beautifully filmed and accurately showed the hard and sometimes frustrating work that goes into managing a large range flock.

and call it beautiful, then I can see enjoying this film. Yes, it is well done....The camera work is really wonderful. What I'm not seeing is how this is anything but what it should be, an anti wool clothing piece. Good god, they abuse the sheep with shears and send them stripped into the snowy winter. Not a single scene where these guys treat any of these animals with respect.

Sorry, I'm actually watching it right now, and I understand there is ignorance at play, but these are horrible human beings.

Enjoy the "Magnificent... Wonderful... Astonishingly beautiful..." "Nature overwhelms the screen and even minds."

Really?

The reviewer Brian criticizes this movie for not having a plot. That is like criticizing shoes for not being useful as a hat. Brian, you are a fool. This is a fantastic documentary. Yes, it does not have a plot. OK. It is not supposed to have a plot. But it does provide a view of the interplay between sheep, herders, and terrain that you will never see anywhere else without actually doing herding yourself. Highly recommended (unless you want a movie with a plot, in which case you should seek one out to watch instead of watching this).

My children keep demanding to see this movie over and over again. I wish there were more documentaries like this about other things we sometimes hear about but never see.

At one point in this wonderful work, the camera is high in the Montana Beartooths above the cowboys with their 3000 sheep coming up the mountain for some good-weather grazing. The woolies are getting to be all over the place and you see a lone cowboy in the saddle with the help of a few sheepdogs corraling the herd purely by the way he moves his horse around and by the calls he makes. Gracefully and neatly he tightens up the herd and turns it in the direction he wants the little bleaters to go. He creates a fence invisible 'round his woolies.

It's that kind of skill, no, art that is so evident in these guys: keeping order in the herd, whittling rough branches for the spines of their tents, sleeping with one ear open for sounds of bear and wolverine, sharpshooting in the night aided only by lamp. These guys do it all and well. They can also midwife a ewe in the crisis of giving birth, find an udder for an orphaned lamb and cleanly, expertly fleece these critters when the wool is heavy.

These cowboys never get rich inspite of a bagful of skills and talents that leave the viewer in respectful admiration. Watching the travail of these guys makes you realize you have never in your life known the true meaning of "hard work."

This is a documentary without any taped-on background music and without any warm-toned narrator telling you what you're seeing. Not even Morgan Freeman. The footage tells the story without extraneous aids. The absence of other noise is welcome. This piece is awesome but it's also funny, not just in the humanity of the cowboys. There's some real comic talent among those woolies, too. Jim Smith

'SWEETGRASS': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Another of the more critically acclaimed documentaries from last year, this one tells the story of modern day cowboys herding sheep one last time through the Absaroka Beartooth mountain range in Montana in the summer of 2003. It's directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor (although uncredited), a Harvard anthropologist, and llisa Barbash (his wife) and produced by Barbash. The film has no music or narration and appears to be somewhat randomly edited together with no real story or message to deliver. It's extremely slow paced and lacking any kind of focus.

The film follows a family of sheepherders as they make their final summer herd through the mountains of Sweet Grass County. It was filmed in 2001 to 2003 at a time when this was still a way of life for some. There's very little dialogue and what there is contains a lot of vulgar language. The film is not rated but would be rated R due to the extreme amount of F words used throughout. We see the herders at their grimmest and most unlikeable as they toss the sheep around and constantly curse them out.

The film is, as I mentioned, very slow and quite dull for almost it's entirety. The scenery is beautiful though and the video is somewhat intimate. It often feels like the herders don't even know they're being filmed as they go about their daily business. It's definitely not a film for everyone and will only please a select audience but if you're into honest documentaries with no other BS you'll probably enjoy it.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=003J1CrnYDk