Sweetgrass

(USA, 2009, 101 mins, 35mm)

Wisconsin Premiere

producer: Ilisa Barbash
sound recording: Lucien Castaing-Taylor
sound editing/mix: Ernst Karel
digital post-production: Patrick Lindenmaier

Baah. Chronicling the final drive of 3,000 sheep across Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains for summer pasture, Sweetgrass is a film in which the dialogue unfolds primarily in bleats. Cowpoke shepherds John Ahern and Pat Connolly (old-timer and young gun, respectively) steer the flock on this months-long odyssey through Big Sky Country, fending off bears and boredom. The high definition cinematography has had critics falling all over themselves in search of superlatives, and for good reason–the mountains surge with rivers of fleece, causing every vista to quiver with motion. Classic films ranging from The Searchers to McCabe and Mrs. Miller have long been hailed as the quintessential Western tombstone, but this documentary about the actual business of being a cowboy in the 21st century seems a far more eloquent eulogy. One of the few clues that Sweetgrass was shot in the past fifty years is that the cowboys have cell phones (but terrible reception). Pat’s anguished mountaintop call home reminds us that for all the natural beauty, it’s not all romance on the range. But hey, you try keeping track of 3,000 sheep. 2009 Berlin, New York, Vancouver Film Festivals.

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