Vernon, Florida

I take some umbrage with this film. If you can't tell by that sentence, I come from the stock under Morris' observation, and I came away from his film feeling a lack of critical empathy from the camera - this was more like a carpetbagger's delusion of the noble savage, masquerading as Americana. The subjects do provide statements of profound truth - that's what humans do, after all - but the result looks down, not at.

"Reality. You mean this is the real world?" And so begins Vernon, Florida. Often accused of cruel exploitation, Morris actually provides a platform for his subjects to tell stories of their own choosing, pointedly editing them to provide a patchwork of thoughts on topics no less important than epistemology ("There's a lot of water out there." "And that's only the top of it."), empiricism (the man who looks at a turtle and sees a gopher), and entropy ("That's what God is: just happened.").

I can't really say I gleaned much insight from this, but just seeing people from a time and place that I'll never experience is interesting enough to me.

Suggested alternative title: "Hicks Say the Darndest Things". A bit of a guilty pleasure. It's intriguing to hear the babblings of Vernon's particularly quirky hillbillies, and I laughed out loud at the town preacher's sermon about his recent comprehension of the word "therefore". While it begs to be asked if it's okay to look down on them like this, one might answer: how can you not? I must warn that there is a little spot of cruelty to animals here which I for one found unpleasant to look at.

Mildly interesting but not worthy of a full film.

A short and unusual little documentary that I couldn't take my eyes (and ears) off.

Florida Man The Movie estreava há 40 anos no Festival de New York. Aff, florida men não é minha praia, estou pouco me lixando para esse povo que gerou filhos trumpistas. A ideia original era fazer um doc na cidade sobre pessoas que cortavam seus próprios membros para ganhar dinheiro do seguro, mas como a equipe e Morris foram ameaçados de morte por isso, então mudou-se a estratégia da filmagem. BlurayRip no MakingOff.

Should humanity ever travel to the stars and, in aid of future wisdom, decide to colonize a world exclusively with Irish people, it's my hope that the sound of the double gobble will not be absent therefrom.

A slice of life observed and then honed in the editing room. Not my favorite Morris, but definitely worth a watch.

Watching this made me glad I don't live in that time or place.

I think maybe this sounds like a better idea in theory than in execution because when it comes down to it, it really is just a bunch of weird old guys from Florida being weird in Florida. Just kinda lame.

Morris is great because he respects his subject above all else. There is never the sense that Vernon, Florida is mocking, or above the backwoods wisdom of the titular town's people. There is true empathy here, and that's great film making.

the original intentions of the documentary sounded fascinating, but this is still interesting, if only because we get to gawk at the ridiculousness of this old timer folk wisdom. morris doesn't seem to have an awful lot of regard for his subjects. but it does give an interesting portrait of a particular time and place. doesn't have the focus or heart of gates of heaven.

The preacher's hilarious sermon about the word "therefore" is the peak moment. The rest is amusing, especially to anyone who has lived in Florida. However, after reading up on the original intentions of the documentary, this is somewhat disappointing. If you don't know what I mean, well, check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernon,_Florida

You think you're going to get this peek into the rural underbelly of southern america but instead you're left with a bunch of crazy hicks and old farts who shouldn't even be allowed to vote. Nothing really more than that even though you sense it tries to be. Obviously, the occasional laugh was had AT these people but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, about them was even slightly interesting.

Just a buncha hicks talkin'. Gets tiresome after a while.

America can be such a strange damn place

Tremendously disappointing after Gates of Heaven. I am not interested in any scattered philosophical lessons to be drawn from these boring, mildly eccentric characters. A preacher's etymiological discussion on the word "however" is one of the more interesting parts of the film. Errol Morris' worst.

Early work from Morris shows some oddballs in Florida.

Seemingly random and beautifully realized look at a certain type of folks. I don't find any reason to look down on anyone here.

I almost feel bad giving this such a low score, but nothing here made much of an impression on me. There are some interesting and strange people on camera here, but I was often bored during the relatively short run time.