Sherman’s March (1986)
First Run Features, PBS

Description

SHERMAN'S MARCH was recently chosen for preservation by the Library of Congress National Film Registry as a "historically significant American motion picture." It has won best documentary awards at numerous film festivals including Sundance, has been cited by the National Board of Film Critics as one of the five best films of its year, was selected for a Cinéma du Réel retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and chosen as "One of the Top 20 Documentaries of All-Time" by the International Documentary Association.

Tags

1980s, Relationships, Romance, North Carolina, Georgia

Collected reviews and ratings

10 New York Times | Vincent Canby

... as Mr. McElwee fusses with himself for not getting on with his meditation on Sherman's march, and as the loose ends of his private life accumulate, a wonderfully goofy, pertinent movie comes into focus.
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10 The Documentary Blog | Jay C

Clocking in at just over two and a half hours, this film is an epic look at relationships and love, rivaling the best of Hollywood’s neurotic, self-deprecating, anti-heroes. Ross McElwee is a real life Woody Allen.
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8.3 Entertainment Weekly | Chris Willman

Neither Michael Moore nor Nick Broomfield can hold a navel-gazing viewfinder to McElwee, who got a grant to make a doc about the Civil War general's trek through enemy territory, and instead made a dramedy about the swath he carved through the South in search of a girlfriend.
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8.0 Amazon user reviews

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.
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8.0 filmcritic.com | Christopher Null

That McElwee is so pathetic isn't what makes the film interesting. It's that he bares his soul on camera for all the world to see.
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6.0 Slant Magazine | Ed Gonzalez

... McElwee is a stand-in for the general. The only difference is that the filmmaker doesn't leave thousands dead in his wake, merely broken hearts and missed opportunities.
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