Vernon, Florida, dir. Errol Morris (1982)

STEVE says:
Yeah, this one I just didn't get. Vernon, Florida is 55 minutes of people - mostly insane people - chatting away with no real point. You've got the turkey hunter, who was as interesting to watch as he was to listen to, always with one ear pointed to the field, should a turkey decide to step up. "You hear that?" he kept saying; the preacher who sermonizes about the etymology of the word "therefore"; and there was the old guy who collected animals - his tale of the mule carcass he pulled off the bottom of the fishing pond with 114 perch inside it will stick with me forever.

But then there was the just plain mental guy who took pictures of the moon and stars with a cheap camera and a pair of opera glasses; the guy who rambled on and on about "the four balls" in the brain and how, when all those balls are being used, "you're not a one-track mind, you're a four-track mind"; and the couple who thought their jar full of sand from White Sands, New Mexico was actually "growing" (as they put it), and would be full by next year.

Watching these people talk - not even tell their stories, but just talk, on and on - I couldn't help wondering what the point of this exercise was. But I was thanking Christ it was only 55 minutes long.

1.5/5

NIKKI says:
They just weren't that interesting.

I love, love, love slice-of-life storytelling. The idea that we can see a moment in a person's life and piece together histories and futures.That a single moment, a sentence, a few words can be used to sum up a person, a culture, a nature. I thought this movie would do that, but I didn't find it revealing really at all. Strange men live in Vernon, have a listen. As far as why they are that way, what their lives represent, what they mean, none of that matters, or seems to matter. So, is it just the snapshot and the precise moment that is supposed to compel me? I'm so torn with this. Normally, I'd be all for it, but it didn't work for me. I was enthralled in the first 15 minutes, but then my interest died.

And here's how I caught this turkey. And here's how I caught that turkey. And isn't this old guy nuts?

Ugh -- did I miss the point? I don't think so.

1.5/5