First Person

Errol Morris is a great man. Re-inventing the documentary format. His films are documentary, from it's initial content, but are a lot more than that. Each of his works, and I say works to include each episode of the show, because that's what they are, they stand side to him feature films, succeed in every way. From the content standpoint, it's very informative, consice, to the point, his interviews are genuine. It's also very stylish, something Morris is known for. So, as I see it's perfect. Documentary is one of my favorite formats, but I never saw the magic that fiction films had, untill ofcourse Errol Morris.

Having enjoyed Fog of War despite its flaws, I decided to try out more of Errol Morris' films and managed to catch just one of the documentaries in this series and, although I clearly cannot comment on the whole series but can comment on the specific episode I saw, which was "The Little Gray Man". This short documentary spends 25 minutes with retired CIA operative Antonio Mendez, who was a master of disguise and on many missions across his career.

I imagine that much of his work is restricted and still subject to classification but he has enough to talk about to make this film worth seeing. Although he is a self-confessed "dull" man and thus perfect for his chosen career, this film sees him being pretty interesting even if I must admit that I longed for it to go deeper and be more insightful. The delivery is similar to Fog of War in the way it focuses on its subject as an interviewee with Morris as the interviewer behind the camera. However the pace of delivery here is much, much faster and is backed by a constant soundtrack of slightly quirky music. The effect is that it feels like almost a long trailer for a bigger documentary. It made me feel like I was never given the time to settle down into the subject and that the discussion was very superficial, which I suppose it mostly was.

In a way this gave me little to remember and indeed, as I write this a few hours after viewing it, its impression is already fading in my mind in the way that Fog of War didn't. Mendez is actually pretty amusing and interesting even if he gives few details and doesn't have a massive amount of charisma. In FoW, I liked the fact that Morris stayed back and allowed McNamara to talk but here he is a bit too present even if he is not seen. His accent bugged me as well as he seems to overreact to the things Mendez says rather than being straight. Again his delivery did reduce the potential for depth and his questions never really probe the psyche of the subject even if some of the questions provide the route to get there if only it was followed.

Overall then this is an interesting and entertaining documentary but it is like a documentary-lite™ for the quick-fix television market. As such I found it engaging while it was on but also instantly forgettable in the way that so much fluff often is. Not sure how representative of the series this one film is but Little Gray Man was slick, enjoyable but lacking depth and rather forgettable.

Stellar interviews with the most intriguing people I've ever seen speak. Through a shade of quirkiness, I found many of the stories very informative, inspiring and touching. I didn't know "STRANGE" can have so much charm.

Morris' "Interrotron" holds a very intimate conversation into the minds of creative and eccentric thinkers. Is it his interviewing skills? Skills in finding interesting people? Who knows...

I just know that after listening to each of his subjects speak, they become unforgettable, driven by passion of a good game in life, bordering on forgivable obsessions. The conversations are animated and genuine. Somehow through candid honesty a hilarity is captured.

An enjoyable documentary.

I saw four of these documentaries at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year not knowing anything about them at all, and they blew my mind.

I don't know if he takes hours and hours of footage and edits it down to a perfect half-hour, asks the perfect questions or it's just that his subjects are amazing, but this series is one of the funniest, saddest and most bizarre things I've ever seen.

I've heard that his other films are of a similar high standard, but I've only seen Mr. Death (Which is also really, really good).

I just wish more of his stuff was released in Australia.... (here's to hoping)

I don't mean to imply that Morris has "sold out", but the guy who got the Scoop on McNamara is now retailing eye witness parrots, amok postal employees, serial killer groupies, and decapitated mothers.

And, I might add, he gives his short term subjects the same kind of love he gives his more weighty subjects, and this makes them surely worthy of our attentions.

OK, OK: To be fair, I'm now watching his piece about the squid researcher, and it's one for the ages.

Here's a thought. If you've never seen Morris before, watch these short pieces, then move on to his larger works. I can, of course, heartily recommend The Fog of War. Morris is now cinematic history as the guy who landed the scoop of the century: A good and proper treatment of Robert S. McNamara in his winter years.

Watch, and enjoy!