Amazon.com

Ross McElwee's heartwarming autobiographical documentary Time Indefinite picks up a few years after his fabulously funny (and successful) Sherman's March left off. While the earlier film billed itself as a search for romantic love in the postnuclear age, this one deals with the weightier subjects that come after you've found that romantic love: marriage, birth, family, and death. For the first 20 minutes you might have the creepy feeling that you're watching someone else's rather well-made home movie (or as one of McElwee's subjects blurts: "Turn off that camera--this isn't art, this is life!"). But abruptly this intimate chronicle turns into an intensely meaningful meditation on the continuity of family, on perseverance in the face of loss... and on McElwee's pathological need to get it all on film. With his gentle Southern wit, McElwee manages to do all this without ever lapsing into bleakness or depression; more than a few moments are laugh-out-loud funny. Even more remarkable is McElwee's talent in organizing the random moments of everyday life--gospel-singing gynecologists, flashbacks to childhood fishing lessons, his family housekeeper's 50th wedding anniversary, fish dinners with philandering friends, the discovery of 8mm footage of his parents' marriage--into something intricately profound and beautiful. This might not be the best introduction to McElwee's movies (or to his family, which is pretty much the same thing). But if you enjoyed following Sherman's March, you'll love where this film takes you. --Grant Balfour ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Edited Home Movies = Boring in this case
This is a very dishonest "film". Taping your life and editing out anything that doesn't make you seem cute, funny or insightful is not a documentary or a film. All I can see is a commercial for what he obviously thinks is his zany life. He is trying to sell you ideas that aren't even worth your time. Some of the scenes intended to be funny seem set-up or scripted. About as real as the reality shows on TV. I liked his first film OK but this one is just a bore.

Perfect
A perfect, humble, and delightful documentary. Few other films could equal it. Sure, this review doesn't tell you much about the actual film, but so what? I just really like this film. Saw it in my second semester in film school. I'll never forget it.

A Fine, Quiet Chronicle
This is a real masterwork. It's a subtle, painful film and takes some time to develop, but the themes it considers are profound. McElwee is a charming man, and his omnipresence never grates. Indeed, the viewer is often aware of the camera only as a surrogate self. When watching this movie one feels honored to be observing firsthand the life of another person and community, and ain't that why we go to the movies?

N/T
I love Ross.

Brilliant
I just couldn't disagree more vigorously with "Chewbacca." SHERMAN'S MARCH was wondrous, but many were tempted to compare its wit with regard to romance with Woody Allen's take on that subject. Though SM touched on nuclear war, etc, it was still about a young guy looking for love. TIME INDEFINITE is a much weightier investigation of death and love and family, but the wit and gentle affection is still there. It's much more Kafka or Camus than Woody Allen. And, if anything, McElwee's ability to collage the small incidents of his life into something profound has only increased. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Filmmaker Ross McElwee turns his cameras inward when his proposed documentary on Northern Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, perhaps the single most hated Union officer in the South, becomes a witty and unexpectedly engaging meditation upon his own ailing love life. As McElwee retraces Sherman's 19th-century march through the South, where his blazing trail left smoking ruins of Georgia's cities and towns in his wake, he can't seem to help but train his camera on a succession of Southern women he meets along the way, using the documentary as a sly method of meeting girls. (Aspiring filmmakers take note: it works surprisingly well.) Sherman's March evolves into an introspective meditation on love, happiness, the fear of nuclear holocaust, and the meaning of life. McElwee's light touch and relaxed, deadpan offscreen narration gives this genial documentary tour of his soul a rare kind of insight. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Ultimately Failed to Deliver.
Considered by many to be a classic in the genre, Sherman's March is the 155 minute personal contemplation of filmmaker, Ross McElwee, regarding his love-life. Though he originally intended to make a documentary about the Northern Civil War's General William Tecumseh Sherman, a figure still much-loathed in the South, instead he cranks out a ponderous study of his romantic dealings with various Southern women.

McElwee's film is not without charm. There is a very funny subplot regarding Burt Reynolds that culminates in a hilarious encounter on the set of The Cannonball Run. And McElwee is not without self-insight into his own sad-sack existence. But ultimately, his film suffers from the fact that he has made a terrible mistake as a documentarian: his has made himself the subject, and he is not intrinsically interesting.

McElwee could have succeeded in making some sort of study on the war of the sexes or a wry comedy of errors, but his total solipsism prevents the audience from ever really thinking about anything but him. What makes it worse is that McElwee is a problematic protagonist. One can clearly read how he wants to come off, but I, a single woman, found his transparency off-putting. Instead of being witty, he's pedantic. Instead of being thoughtful, he's so wrapped up in these silly encounters that any intelligent woman watching cannot but help but conclude that McElwee is shooting his own foot. He is attracted to stupid and terrible women who are totally without character or depth.

A strange combination of pretention and yet utter superficiality characterize both McElwee and his film. Had he been a bigger man, or a more skilled documentarian, his film could easily have become one worth recommending.

An absolute original......
I was glad to finally locate this underground classic, and it was worth the wait. While most documentaries take few risks and present talking heads, Ross McElwee dares to tell a subjective, off-the-wall story of loneliness and love, using Sherman's March to the Sea as an outline. Funny, insightful, and full of rich characterizations (except these people are the real deal), this film needs to be seen by a new generation of film lovers. Despite its 2 1/2 hour length, it is brisk and I must say, I was NEVER bored. Quite simply, a brilliant charmer.

quiet clarity
Ignore those who don't get Ross's schtick. It's transfixing. Ross's stream of conscious commentary on his life as it unfolds in front of his camera lens has a rare clarity and simple unaffected profoundness.

Art is not photography
Art is not photography Man Ray amended as he grew wiser. As a youthful contrarian he'd claimed that photography is not art -he'd relented a bit. Ross McElwee's "Sherman's March" is the first film that convinced me that while cinema can't be art (there are hundreds of craftsmen assembling it along the way)it can rouse the soul if the director is the lead actor, writer, cameraman, lighting specialist....Imagine Mr. McElwee walking about the South ruminating about lost loves with no technical help, running into the most ditzy women and actually including them in his film with no interview or casting couch! Here we have the second greatest story ever told. But let me not overstate. One must see his other films for everything to dovetail and astonish. If you are literate, please study this man's work.

A documentary exploration of Southern mating rituals
Ostensibly Ross McElwee went South to make a documentary tracing the path of General William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march across Georgia during the Civil War. But McElwee is distracted by his recurring dreams of nuclear holocaust (and Burt Reynolds) and so instead of ruined plantations or other such reminders of the Union general's scorched earth policy, McElwee turned his camera on the Southern women he encountered. This 1987 documentary's subtitle gives us a much better indication of this film's focus: "A Mediation on the Possibility of Romantic Love in the South During an Era of Nuclear Weapons Proliferation." Whatever its humble origins, "Sherman's March" is a fascinating examination of contemporary mating rituals in the South. Without much apparent effort on his part, McElwee encounters a collection of fascinating characters with some unforgettable stories that are superior to what you find in most "real" films. Once again we realize that basically everybody has at least one good story to tell, a point realized by CBS news which currently has an ongoing human interest series where the reporter picks a name at random from a phone book and then heads off to find out what story that person has to tell. McElwee's documentary proves you cannot go wrong doing so. This film also gives much hope to every gawkish young man who can get his hands on a camera as a way of meeting young women. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Sherman's March: A Primer
Understated, organic and tender, these two films are the perfect primer for Ross McElwee's magnum opus: "Sherman's March". In "Backyard" we are presented with a bemused study of class distinctions, and in "Charleen" we meet the Earth godess going about her multple enterprises with a rag tag group of singers and musicians. She dispenses her tutelage with wit, graciousnes and verve. God bless Ross McElwee. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Ross McElwee's films are to documentary what the personal memoir is to biography: McElwee presents his view of the world, coming as close to first-person narrative as is possible in a film. These are not documentaries you watch for an objective view of the world; in fact, what makes McElwee's films so remarkable is his unabashed bias, his outspoken commentary, and the voyeuristic glimpses into his personal life.

Six O'Clock News, McElwee's third feature-length film, continues the autobiographical journey begun with Sherman's March and Time Indefinite. Here, though, rather than outside events launching personal exploration (as in March), the existence of his 8-month-old son initiates his investigation of the six o'clock news.Questioning the wisdom of bringing a child into a world full of violence and mayhem, he travels across the country, chasing the disasters he sees nightly on TV: the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo (where we revisit one of his favorite subjects, the lively and always entertaining Charleen); a widower whose wife was murdered in a wig shop; a man who had been trapped in a parking garage during the Los Angeles earthquake. Along the way, glimpses of McElwee's own life squeak in: a possible film deal with Miramax, metaphysical musings, and his son's views on God. This film is more polished than earlier ones (the editing is much tighter), effectively conveying themes ranging from the question of what is reality in the media to the randomness of disaster to fate and higher powers. Yet despite the weighty subjects, Six O'Clock News is not a heavy film; indeed, parts are extremely humorous, including a scene with a colorful next-door neighbor who records thousands of hours worth of TV shows, making this a well-rounded film that's both provocative and enjoyable.--Jenny Brown ... Read more