'Fahrenheit' led the way for other documentaries

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's "Supersize Me" opened a national discussion about the fast-food industry. Richard Hartog • Los Angeles Times

The collection hits stores Tuesday, the same day as the home video release of "Fahrenheit 9/11," the first successful film to arrive on DVD while it is still in theaters. There are no doubts it will sell well; the only question is whether it will jump out of the box even faster than "The Passion of the Christ." It's going to be a close race, friends.

Love him or hate him, Moore has waged an amazing campaign, and led a real revolution. Films once relegated to the back of Blockbuster and the back racks at Barnes & Noble are now front and center, competing for our attention along with The Rock's recent remake of "Walking Tall" (MGM).

The influence of Moore is especially obvious in the summer's second-biggest documentary hit, "Super Size Me," (Hart Sharp), in which filmmaker Morgan Spurlock spends 30 days eating exclusively at McDonald's with the requirement that every time he is asked the question "Would you like to super size that," he has to. Why anyone is surprised that he ends this experiment overweight with high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a liver described by his concerned doctor as resembling pate, I have no idea.

Like Moore, Spurlock addresses the obvious in amusing ways, and the film achieved a result similar to "Fahrenheit": It opened a national discussion. Which is what docs are supposed to do.

Continuing this pattern is Clinton partisan Harry Thomason's "The Hunting of the President" (Fox), which makes the case that Hillary Rodham Clinton's "vast right-wing conspiracy" theory isn't as paranoid as it sounds. Following an "All the President's Men"-style trail, Thomason argues that big money and canny political operatives cynically came together to use zealots and the media to make Bill Clinton's life hell — not, of course, that he didn't play into their hands.

Ken Burns collection

I would not be surprised if the lower-priced relaunches of Ken Burns' multipart "Baseball" and "Jazz" are a reaction to the documentary boom. Although those and the rightfully revered "Civil War" series are considered his greatest achievements, I have to admit to a lingering fondness for his earlier self-contained pieces, seven of which are now collected under the title "Ken Burns' America Collection" (Paramount).

Pre-fame-Burns' films were always a must-see for me when I attended the New York Film Festival, and my favorite remains 1985's "Huey Long," a surprisingly balanced portrait of the Louisiana governor and demagogue known as the Kingfish. (The assassinated Long was the model for the crafty corrupt pol in Robert Penn Warren's 1946 novel "All the King's Men," which was made into a film.)

Every bit as good is 1981's "Brooklyn Bridge," an absorbing examination of how this architectural miracle was conceived, built and served to unify New York. Burns used similar techniques to get inside "The Statue of Liberty" in 1985, while 1991's absorbing "Empire of the Air," which explored how radio conquered the world, was considered his breather project between "The Civil War" and "Baseball."

The set also includes 1988's "Thomas Hart Benton," a thorough look at the hard-drinking, highly opinionated and endlessly influential American painter, and 1984's "The Shakers," which exposes us to the insular American religious community originally known for its ecstatic dancing and then for the craftsmanship of its furniture and architecture, which reflected the serene and simple lives members strove to live. Each title is also available individually.

Back to Fiction

After all that exposure to reality, you may want to return to the land of make-believe. "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (Universal) is another original mind bender from the gifted screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Adaptation"), with a good performance by Jim Carrey as a man who undergoes a memory easement procedure to spare himself the pain of having been erased by his ex-girlfriend, Kate Winslet.

There's much to enjoy here, including supporting performances by Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood and Mark Ruffalo as careless employees of the doctor (Tom Wilkinson) who oversees the job.

"The Alamo" (Buena Vista) is based on historical fact, but John Lee Hancock's account of the final stand of Davy Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), Jim Bowie (Jason Patric) and various other real-life advocates of Texan independence, led by Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid), is an example of Hollywood mythmaking, if not as obviously as the 1960 version.

TV series on DVD

TV fans, get ready: Christmas season has officially begun.

Out this week is "Star Trek Voyager Season Four" (Paramount) yet another excellent entry in the series, with 26 episodes and the usual array of fine extras spread over discs. Those like me who have a soft spot for the 1960s gothic soap "Dark Shadows," will be relieved to know the 14th collection (MPI) of chronological half-hour episodes is finally available.

The first season of the 1980s comedy "227" (Columbia-Tristar), starring the great Marla Gibbs, is boxed with no extras. The second season of "In Living Color" (Fox) may be best remembered for introducing Jim Carrey's Fire Marshal Bill.