The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is as engaging as watching 90 minutes of disjointed Super-8 home movies of people you've never met, except with none of the cute kids or humor that might redeem the home movies. Consider it The Blair Witch Project without a story and with no acting.

The story relates the filmmaker's progress in documenting the life of her distant grandfather who was a famous vaudeville magician and acrobat. The angle is that, while Long Tack Sam traveled in the same circuit at other vaudeville artists who are globally known, he is unknown - totally forgotten. The filmmaker attempts to flesh out the man and to explore why he is forgotten.

Having seen the movie, I understand why he is forgotten. His story, at least as related in the movie, is wholly unengaging, and the film does him no favors by droning endlessly trying to make him interesting, when in fact, he is totally undistinguishable from the hundreds of other two-bit performers scraping together a living in the early 1900s. There is no filmed footage of his act; so we are meant to appreciate his performance through animation.

The film is painfully uninteresting to watch. I screened it among a film society audience of highly forgiving film lovers, and I believe it was the first film shown in our forum to have had audience members leave, continuously throughout the movie.

One positive note: the film uses a cute technique of animating still photos, but even that novelty wore off after about 5 minutes of it.

I recommend the movie as a non-narcotic solution if you are suffering from insomnia.

In total contrast to the opinion of, Igetheheat, who might be more appropriately named, Philistine, this is a gem of a documentary, that works well on many levels, as you can clearly see from the scores that other viewers have given this film.

First of all it is an interesting story of international romance and history, thoroughly engaging to anyone with a sense of wonder. The film has great charm which is enhanced by the incredible animation of characters in old still photos, as well as some wonderful, delightfully original animation.

Second, the story unfolds, from the point of view of the great granddaughter (Ann Marie Fleming, the filmmaker)as she tracks down the story of the great Long Tack Sam. He is an incredible person, courageous (to runaway to join the Circus and leave his home), ambitious, and obviously very talented (acrobat, and magician).

Third, it brings to focus, an era of vaudeville entertainment, that is no longer with us, so that we can only get a glimpse of what this was like from recreations and documentaries like this. It does this very well with still pictures, animations and interviews with people who remember the past.

You can enjoy this work on many levels because it, for me at least, it succeeds at every level. Bravo!!

PS Added June 2006

For those that enjoyed this movie, you might also enjoy Donna Schatz's documentary "Balancing Acts", which is making the rounds of Public TV in 2006.

This film is one hell of a sumptuous visual feast. The animated photographs are wondrous, seeming to bring Long Tack Sam and kin back to life. The multiple "origin" comics are lush with color. Both merge seamlessly with candid interviews and found(?) footage. I cannot rhapsodize enough about the aesthetics and style. Kudos to Ann Marie Fleming for this biographical masterpiece on her great-grandfather.

The storyline is equally compelling. The scenic shifts from place to place, country to country, allow Fleming to uncover new facts about the acrobat/ magician's life, and cleverly parallel Sam's own perigrinations. Globetrotters, par excellance, the travels of Sam and Fleming provide effective narrative ballast, and in particular, Fleming's adept narration carefully focuses our attention, so that we feel privy to the historical events Sam lived through during the early and mid 20th century.

The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam is in every sense a celebration of an almost forgotten man, who perhaps until now, never got his proper due. And it pays homage not just to the remarkable Sam, but to other members of his family as well (especially his daughter Mina, Fleming's grandmother). With its grea t style and storytelling, this is a film to be seen again and again.

This pretentious film focuses entirely on the director for all but the first thirty minutes of the film. According to this documentary, we should all be so lucky to have an ancestor as famous as Long Tack Sam. But this would be only to bask in his glory, not to celebrate his life.

In the film, we learn very little about Long Tack Sam's life and we don't see many photos of him. The film is all about Ms. Flemming's experience as she makes the documentary and is overly redundant when delivering this information. In the end I was bored and disappointed.

This is two hours I want back so I can spend it watching a real documentary on someone who actually had a magical life.

Almost a documentary, this is a very well made biography of director Ann Marie Fleming's great grand-father. As a view into a period it enlightens so many disparate historical events; it seems Sam was an global perambulator, sometimes skirting and sometimes being involved in many geopolitical happenings, but always in pursuit of his work and his loves.

The format mix of film, interviews, comic book cutouts and animation holds interest over the hour and a half of run time. We get a strong sense of who this man was, and are only left to wonder why we didn't know more about him already.