Monrovia, Indiana

Although Monrovia is a boring small town in mid west I'm sure some people there have interesting things to say or have deep inner lives but Wiseman didn't reach this and so this was the most boring film I've seen in ages.

Very weird seeing a documentary about a small town 15 minutes from where I live, and that I've spent a decent chunk of time in. Seeing it from an outsider's perspective was different, and seeing all of these roads I've driven on through a camera lens was an odd experience. Honestly surprised the director found enough content in Monrovia to make an almost two and a half hour movie out of, considering I can drive across town in twenty seconds. Still cool, though, never knew this documentary existed. I always like documentaries that show an unfiltered glimpse into the life of others, and this was no different, even though the life it showed was basically the same as the one I live.

This is not one of Wiseman's best films. Many people complain about how long it is and that it feels like it's going nowhere. Well, the 2nd part is correct. The film is somewhat long (143 minutes), but most of Wiseman's films run between 3-4 hours, and a few of them go longer than that. City Hall is 4 1/2 hours, and Near Death is 6 hours. This is a relatively short one. The issue is that the film feels too short, and Wiseman, uncharacteristically, cuts around too much and doesn't let his camera run on the people on the town. Part of Wiseman's genius is that he captures fascinating parts of reality in his movies, but they are often extended and some scenes run up to 20 minutes in length. Despite these extended scenes, his films are never boring and I love almost everything I've seen by him. However, in Monrovia, Indiana, he doesn't do that. He just jumps around randomly to people and events without any flow to it. It's almost like he wasn't that interested in these people, and most of the people in the film appear merely once in the picture. In his other pictures, the subjects often appear throughout the film and the films flow better. The one time Wiseman lets a scene play out is at the end when a local woman passes away. That scene runs 20 minutes or so and is the best scene in the film.

We never really get to know the town too much because of the overly episodic nature of the film and that Wiseman never bothers to get to know the people that well. One of the few disappointments from Wiseman.

In my opinion, Frederick Wiseman is the greatest documentary film maker of all time and here he looks at life in Monrovia, Indiana a small town farming community.

As in other Wiseman films, there is no narration, interviews or leading questions. He simply allows us to get a glimpse into the lives of people living here. He starts off with some beautiful shots of blue skies, breezes blowing through the trees and fields. Then we see towns folk going about their business in their jobs and everyday life. Only Wiseman could make working in a pizzeria or a supermarket seem fascinating. The early scenes shows the Monrovia High School, showing a teacher proudly talking about Indiana basketball players, there is also a quick scene of students rehearsing a musical revue. There is no scenes of any trouble at the school, unlike Wiseman's 1968 classic "High School". One of the funnier moments is a group of older men at a diner talking about diet food and drinking a lot of beer to get it down. We see a pig farmer getting his pigs ready to be sold. Wiseman spares us from seeing them slaughtered which I thought was unusual for him since he normally shows us everything. However later on, we get to see a veterinarian operating on a dog's tail reminiscent of the operation we got to see in Wiseman's 1993 "Zoo". There are a few long sequences of the town council discussing new houses being built and lack of fire hydrant inspections. A wedding is shown in a Christian church with nice singing of the old song "Always". There is a scene in a gun shop where owner and customer talk about rifle scopes for deer hunting and about a friend with gall stones. The final sequence is the funeral of a beloved wife and mother. Wiseman is always great at giving a well rounded picture of his subjects. The last scene of the coffin being lowered is very moving. It is often the last scene of a Wiseman film that hits you the hardest, and that is what happens here.

While this is not one of Wiseman's best, it still is a worthy addition to his collection.

The director captured the essence of Indiana small-town life perfectly in this PBS documentary. The citizens of Monrovia are exactly the same personality types that I met during my time in rural Indiana about 40 years ago. It appears that nothing has changed.

I lived in Clayton, Indiana for about 4 years. Clayton is very close to Monrovia, which had the only bank in the area. I came from the Seattle, WA area, so the whole culture and landscape of Clayton and Monrovia were foreign to me - the flat fields as far as the eye could see and beyond. The social life of people in these farm areas is very structured and life experiences are limited by the narrow perspective of a strictly proscribed culture. I ended up in Indiana because my husband and I wanted to established a thoroughbred stud farm and his parents had a large parcel of land. When we got there and realized what a different landscape and social structure we found ourselves, I regretted moving there almost immediately. I was in a strange place and I had a lot to learn about middle America culture. People knew that I was not local. Not just from my (non-Southern) accent, but from my questions about (1) the religious emphasis in daily life, l(2) seeming lack of interest in local or national government, and (3) attitudes about women and their "place" in society.

After returning to the Pacific Northwest after 4 years and Iooking back on my experiences in Clayton and Monrovia, I had a better idea about how people in different parts of America think about life and society in general. Where we live molds our perspective through exposure to different people and different landscapes.