Lewis Moon Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 Just watched this movie this AM while folding the laundry (such is my life). A beautiful, spare, quiet film about sheep herding in the high mountains of Montana. Really an anthropological documentary, it is pitched, paced and painted as the hard life of a sheep herding family would be. Both border collies and livestock guard dogs appear in the film, but the space and quiet of the landscape are the real stars. Might not be everyone's cup of tea: No car chases, no steamy love scenes, no jackass stunts and no musical score but the wind. Watched it on Netflix streaming and wished I would have gotten the DVD for better detail. YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcv-border Posted January 23, 2011 Report Share Posted January 23, 2011 I LOVED it too. Spare is a great descriptor. I actually ventured into an indy theater to watch it since I had such high hopes for it - and I was not disappointed. I will also mention that there is very little dialogue. Good for the hard-of hearing!! Since my husband has a hearing deficiency (hearing aids amplify background (i.e. audience) sounds so theater movies were hard for him), this was the first time we had gone to a theater showing in I don't know how many years (too many to count). Thank goodness for videos, and now, DVDs (Netflix). Jovi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloria Atwater Posted January 24, 2011 Report Share Posted January 24, 2011 I thought it was gorgeously photographed and a telling, realistic depiction of a hard and fast-disappearing way of life. I did question some of the editorial choices, though. I thought they deliberately aimed their focus on the most raw, tough, gritty aspects of the life, especially as the film went on. I've cowboyed, packed mules and lived in backcountry camps, and it wasn't *all* that edge-of-human-endurance stuff. (And I sure as heck didn't have a cell phone to cry home on, lol!) But ... "Sweetgrass" was good. People who know nothing about rural life or ranching and what goes on beyond the blacktop's end need to see this, to understand where their food comes from and that there's more to feeding this country than shrink-wrapping a chunk of beef (or chunk of broccoli) and putting it on a grocery store shelf. ~ Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hsnrs Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 We are going to ditch our cable soon and get Netflix. Anyone know if this movie is available there? I'd love to see it and Mist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeltaBluez Tess Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 I wrote a review for it http://deltabluez.blogspot.com/2010/04/sweetgrass-movie-review.html I enjoyed it.....most of the were from farming backgrounds.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Moon Posted January 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 We are going to ditch our cable soon and get Netflix. Anyone know if this movie is available there? I'd love to see it and Mist. Netflix is where I got it, on our Roku box. Ditch the cable. I predict that within 10 years, cable television will be a memory...unless their highly paid lobbyists get to congress first and block the Net TV paradigm shift that's happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearse Posted January 26, 2011 Report Share Posted January 26, 2011 I thought it was gorgeously photographed and a telling, realistic depiction of a hard and fast-disappearing way of life. I did question some of the editorial choices, though. I thought they deliberately aimed their focus on the most raw, tough, gritty aspects of the life, especially as the film went on. I've cowboyed, packed mules and lived in backcountry camps, and it wasn't *all* that edge-of-human-endurance stuff. (And I sure as heck didn't have a cell phone to cry home on, lol!) I kept thinking through that whole section where he was having the meltdown, "man, if only he had a couple of decent dogs, his life would be so much easier". The cowboys seemed to be doing a lot of the work that the dogs could have been doing, but I've never trailed sheep into the backcountry like that so what do I know. Pearse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyTDogs Posted January 27, 2011 Report Share Posted January 27, 2011 I kept thinking through that whole section where he was having the meltdown, "man, if only he had a couple of decent dogs, his life would be so much easier". The cowboys seemed to be doing a lot of the work that the dogs could have been doing, but I've never trailed sheep into the backcountry like that so what do I know. Pearse On a related note...did anyone ever see that show- American Cowboy? It was on TLC or some cable network last year. I was very excited at the possibility of seeing working dogs but instead it was crazy- the BC's were a fixture on the back of the 4 wheelers! In one scene the hand is trying to thwart a yearling bull's advances on a group of young heifers while on a 4 wheeler & his Border collie is white knuckling it on the back- I kept yelling- "Let the dog do it! Let the dog do it!" I think the show only lasted that one 6 season episode and I saw only one instance where the dogs actually worked the cattle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted February 2, 2011 Report Share Posted February 2, 2011 The show was The Last American Cowboy. It followed 3 different families, the one you are describing with the dog on the 4 wheeler also used a helicopter to move cattle. It was a massive ranch and used technology over dogs and horses. There was a smaller ranch that did have a group of borders that went out with the guys on horse back and the dogs did the work. There was an even smaller family ranch that used a cattle dog also. I thought the show was pretty good, mostly because the scenery was incredible and the time they showed the dogs was really fun to see. I did not like the narrating though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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