Taxidermy: Stuff the World

I saw this documentary 15 years ago and it's one of the most macabre and yet somehow, funny documentaries I've ever seen. Think Coen Bros. Think Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. Full of irony and leaves you questioning that these people really do exist. I would 'kill' to get a copy.

This heartbreaking and scary documentary is about suburban and rural, um, people whose egos decree they must kill wild animals and farmyard critters, and re-create their stance and pose them stuffed as seen just before the bullet ripped through their fur. Everyone in this film seems weird. If it WAS funny it would be like A MIGHTY WIND or SPINAL TAP or another of Chrostopher Guests faux documentaries. But sadly it is not. It is all real. Every person followed is shown casually dissecting gorgeous dead animals and the beasts are re stuffed and posed for the glorification of the supposed talent of these cruel nerds. Horses, squirrels, and tragically even a leopard and Bambi all get the bullet for the ego boost of these nobodies who want to be God. The sequences between a dad and his 5 year old daughter who slaughters and disembowels a beautiful deer ("cool!" she mutters repeatedly, especially when daddy yanks out its bleeding dripping heart torn in half from her bullet)... and most appalling is the very short angry man who goes to Africa and slaughters a lioness and then a leopard in the pretense he will enter the skin in a taxidermy competition.... well it is just shattering and heartbreaking that these gun toting horrors are allowed to wander the planet pumping bullets into every and any animal they see just so they can re animate them in a taxidermy competition... you have been warned. It is a psychologist's textbook case on personality disorder. This film ran on Australian TV the other night! I saw it and I am still crying.

Every two years taxidermists from around the world converge on Springfield, Illinois for the biggest event in animal stuffing – the world taxidermy championships. This documentary uses the 2005 ceremony as a way into the lives of a handful of the individuals who spend their spare time mounting dead animals (not in a Tom Green type way) and taking part in local competitions on their way to the big time.

Taking its lead from Spellbound, this film looks into a competition by focusing on a handful of individuals and, although it doesn't work as well as that film, it is still an interesting documentary. The novelty value of the world of competitive taxidermy and the characters themselves are enough to carry it to 90 minutes which is just as well because at times the aim of the film is not clear. If it is a look at taxidermy then it doesn't do enough to bring out the feelings of those involved in it; if it is a character piece then it does an average job of drawing out the people. The truth is it is a mix of the two and while it excels at neither, it does well enough at both to make it work. Animal lovers will probably want to avoid the film due to the number of animal skinning etc that is shown. I'm a liberal of sorts and I have no specific problem with hunting, but the scenes of hunting and killing were a bit hard to watch and just made me wonder who these people were. Needless to say the taxidermists driving 4x4's and firing high powered rifles are almost all American.

The camera work is good from Mathews but I felt that the lack of direction was down to him. He has done well to get the characters but, unless they do it for him, he is unable to draw them out. So some of the characters are interesting, some are dull but only one or two really come over as interesting people with something worth listening to beyond taxidermy. The "weird" aspect of their lives helps the film but I just felt that Mathews could have tightened his focus and really tried to capture the hearts of his subjects.

Overall, an interesting film despite not being sure of what it is trying to achieve. The novelty value of the taxidermy world and the weird interest in some of its characters keep it interesting while you are watching it even if I'd be hard pressed to tell you anything that I took away from it.