Director: Ross McElwee
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 2.0
Under the guise of investigating the infamous path of destruction made by General Sherman during the Civil War which left the South in ruins (he was a proponent of "total war"), McElwee devotes his time to trying to find the right woman for himself. Whether it's intentional or not, he gathers up some of the most whacked out females I've ever seen on film - virtually everyone a weirdo, from the woman who lives in the woods and is studying for a degree in linguistics to "Charleen" who thinks the world is just a big brothel to the various nuclear war fanatics to the Burt Reynolds obsessives to the delusional would be actresses (he can't help but show the one doing squat thrusting exercises and 'showing off' her fat) and so on, turning what could be a heartbreaking film about romantic difficulties into a condescending and passive-aggressive documentary. McElwee plays the role of the wounded lover very well - most notably when he confronts a woman he was at one time very serious about with his camera and proceeds to assault her with the device, zooming in on her and making her confess to the camera and him what she feels (this "trapping" is a ploy for the audience to "side" with him or strengthen the drama of the situation). A little later, he delivers another blow when he depicts the man she's "infatuated" with as having difficulty with a can of gasoline and, a little later, carrying around large toy animals for "us" to laugh at.
