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Dir. Jay Delaney
Rating: 6.8 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Lance Duroni
Mysticism is a funny thing. If the practitioner hails from a far-off land and has indigenous credentials, like say, a Peruvian witch doctor, Americans will politely suspend disbelief and let animal spirits and magic potions do their thing. If said mystic is a redneck from southern Ohio, however, who talks to Bigfoot and heals his buddies with life force energy, he is sure to be met with derisive laughter. In Jay Delaney’s first documentary film, this duplicity is challenged as the mystical power of Bigfoot takes center stage, injecting hope into a blighted post-industrial landscape and summoning some of the same white-trash magic captured in Chris Smith’s acclaimed 1999 documentary American Movie. In Portsmouth, OH, few things have come easy for Bigfoot “researchers” Dallas Gilbert and Wayne Burton. Dallas lost his mother at an early age and has always struggled to make ends meet for his family of five. Wayne was a classic juvenile delinquent whose failure to graduate high school condemned him to work at the car wash next door to his dilapidated house. Wayne’s regrets thunder with potent despair, and along with Dallas’s down-home values, render the two men endearing despite their rough edges and laughable IQs. Both ne’er-do-wells find passion and purpose in the Appalachian wilderness, where they see evidence of undiscovered primates around every bend in the road. This “evidence” rarely amounts to anything more than blotchy shadows or lumpy pixels distorted by their decade-old camera and computer, but Wayne and Dallas are true believers and view each sighting as a scientific prize yet to be appreciated. Their bond, however, is strained when Wayne commits a very human mistake that casts doubt upon their research in the Bigfoot Community. Used by “sophisticated” Bigfoot researchers, mocked by radio hosts, and haunted by an American Dream unrealized, Wayne and Dallas are presented with unfiltered honesty as the mad, curling fringe of a fringe subculture. There are two ways to digest their story: the cynics will viciously mock these old men with childish dreams -- but most people that possess even a thimble’s worth of compassion will embrace the spirit of Bigfoot and join Delaney and his hapless heroes on this spirited ride through beautiful and quirky Appalachia.
The extras on this DVD simply offer more opportunities to laugh at Dallas and Wayne’s low-tech and unscientific methods, with an 8-step guide to starting your own Bigfoot research team as well as a picture gallery of their dubious findings. The deleted scenes were obviously deleted for a reason as they offer little of interest.
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