American Hollow

As someone who grew up in the deep south, and had to leave it as an adult for the purpose of economic survival and the avoidance of poverty, I can deeply relate to this family.

The interesting thing about them is that they complain about their impoverished condition, yet when the 18 year-old boy want to move to Ohio to pursue a better life, the family sabotages his efforts with discouraging words such as "a bad check always returns."

Having come from such a family that also tried to sabotage my efforts to gain self-respect through work and better economic opportunities, this all rang true for me. Especially coming from a southern culture where ties to the land are strong and very few people actually summon up the guts to move to "the big city," where the inevitable hardships and culture shock await.

A very accurate and moving portrait of a southern family, obviously one which cares about each other, but one which seems to wallow in it's own dysfunction and lack of ambition. I kept wanting to say to them, but you could have a better life, if only you'd get up off your caboose and go out into the big, bad world and show some gumption and make something of yourself. That kind of attitude seems to be common in families which have grown up in a rural environment. I know, because I met many people like that in Arkansas, where I was raised.

If Rory Kennedy meant her documentary, "American Hollow," to show us a poor Southern rural white family as something more respectable than the disparaging hillbilly stereotype, she failed.

Not only were those familiar stereotypes not dispelled in this film, they were played out before us.

The film offers us snaggletoothed, alcoholic louts given to ridiculing their wives and kids. We see amazingly good-humored, unprotesting womenfolk who do all the work of keeping the family together and fed, with little help from the men.

The chronically unemployed men in the Bowling family simply won't leave to find work and a better life outside the hollow in their part of Kentucky where there are few job prospects.

Worse, they actively encourage failure in the "young'uns" as well.

I suspect we're supposed to believe that the Bowlings are nevertheless noble because they have deep roots on the land they've been unemployed, impoverished, and uneducated on for generations.

My grandparents came across the Atlantic to America because they couldn't make a living in the old country. I think that's far more courageous (and American) than staying in a lousy situation with no hope.

Poor rural black folks have to contend with racial discrimination when they go to the city for job opportunities. By contrast, the Bowling men, most of them blond, wouldn't have that hurdle to jump. But no, they stay resolutely mired in their hollow.

I'm a pretty soft-hearted person, but I lost my respect for the Bowling men in the first ten minutes of the film.

However, even if most of the subjects of this documentary aren't appealing, the film itself is well-made. I did learn one thing from "American Hollow" -- that love-sick teenage boys and the sweet young things who lead them on are the same the world over.

I have witnessed first-hand much of the family dynamics that is portrayed in this documentary, and it is sad that people are so poor. What has never failed to astound me however, is the pride and ignorance that keeps these poor people from leaving the area or progressing. Amazingly, when they do leave, they keep coming back. This film not only shares the pitiful life style of America's poor, but also captures the deep level pridefulness of those unwilling to progress and change their lives they are so discontented with. This attitude surely is ignorance and fear which is far more disturbing than poverty.

I love documentaries. "American Hollow" was very good because it let you see a side of American life that few ever see. I really cared about these people. One thing that bothered me a little was that if these folks were so poor and had no running water, jobs, etc., why was there a satellite dish in their front yard? I don't consider myself "poor" but even I can't afford a satellite dish!

Also, the show never stated this, but I wonder if the teenage Bowling son and Shirley Couch didn't get married because of HER parents and social rank? It seemed one minute she was all for it and the next thing you knew was that the engagement was off! Fickle female or interfering parents? Interesting. I was ready to slap him, though and tell him to get on with his life. If he put one-fourth the energy into finding a job instead of mooning over his little girlfriend, he would have made enough money to move out of the "holler"! Anyway, it was a very interesting, engrossing documentary. I recommend it.

I thought it was a wonderful look in to the impoverished life of an eastern Kentucky family. Rory Kennedy does an exceptional job in showing the actual living conditions and routines of these folk on a daily basis. Many scenes in the film remind me of people I see every day in this area, as I live less than 100 miles from the area it was filmed. Many families in this area due to lack of employment and educational opportunities, live day to day as the "Bowling" family does in this film. Hopefully due to Ms. Kennedy's efforts in filming this the government can institute more help for the families of the eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and southern West Virginia families.