The Last One

I was lucky enough to see Popcorn Sutton in person shortly before he took his own life (in a move to avoid dying in prison after his 3rd and final conviction, which occurred shortly after this footage was recorded). Popcorn is a legend in the world of Moonshine, and the film-maker does a fantastic job of capturing his personality and uniqueness, as well as the artistry Sutton displays while demonstrating his particular brand of genius. Popcorn used to run his old truck down into Maggie Valley, NC with his copper kettles and a sign that said "Have your picture taken with a working still". Those lucky enough to know him were quite sure that it was indeed a "working still". This film truly captures a slice of life in the Smoky Mountains and does a very good job of documenting a small portion of the vast knowledge, skill and tradition that Popcorn took with him to his grave. We can only hope his various apprentices paid very close attention over the years so that this underground art will not be lost forever.

Many people will see a stubborn scofflaw who refused to participate in the rules that bind our society, but I saw him as a living embodiment of the American spirit that flows through the cold-water streams of western NC. While it may be hard for "city folk" to believe, I can tell you from experience that there is an entire region filled with real people who speak, dress and act like the folks you'll meet in this film. It's not hard to imagine a future in which this culture has been lost to the ages, so I encourage you to take the time to watch, learn, and enjoy some of the true American history that you won't read about in school. This will be especially true if you have an interest in the distillation of spirits, corn whiskey (aka "Mountain Dew" or "White Lightning") in particular, or the rebellious nature of the proud and fiercely independent Scotch-Irish population of the Appalachian hills.

What we have here is a neat idea for a documentary, a throwback to the days of Appalachian moonshiners and Federal agents and a whole American tradition distinctly associated with a certain time and place, yet we don't have the story arch that will keep it all together. We have an old picaresque bearded moonshine figure, Marvin 'Popcorn' Sutton, with his indecipherable accent and a lifetime's experience of brewing moonshine in the Appalachian woods, yet we don't have a narrative in which his stories will find the proper context. We get a number of writers and journalists who've written on the subject of moonshining over the years giving us the occasional glimpse into history and fact, and we see Marvin 'Popcorn' Sutton building an impromptu brewery in the middle of the woods one last time for old time's sake, but it's never really compelling as a documentary. From an encyclopedic perspective, an article online will likely have more information to offer. From a storytelling perspective, there's not much to gather because it's all pretty scattershot.