Vernon, Florida

After winning a shoe-eating bet with Werner Herzog over the creation of his landmark pet cemetery opus, Gates of Heaven, documentarian Errol Morris chose a seemingly more mundane subject for his second feature, Vernon, Florida. Though it barely qualifies as a film due to its short, one-hour running time, Morris' rich and engaging film simply chronicles the thoughts and lives of residents in the small town of Vernon, Florida, though he could have easily gone to any other out-of-the-way Southern or Midwestern location and achieved similar results. Southerners are blessed with the gift of gab, and Morris simply lets them strut their stuff, staying out of the way as the camera avoids anything resembling judgment or condescension. (This very aspect is often the cause of discomfort for viewers, who tend to project their own views onto the feature with very telling results.) Unlike anything seen before, Morris' early films not only paved the way for innumerable other documentarians but independent narrative films as well; it's doubtful Richard Linklater would have ever made Slacker or Dazed and Confused without films like this to prove the formula can work. Once again mostly off-camera animals play a vital role (with the "gopher/turtle" interview usually getting the biggest laughs), though here they're used for atmosphere rather than a driving structural device. Most of the humor derives from simple observations of human behavior: quirky grammar choices, drawling yarns that only the teller seems to fully understand, and personal obsessions (photography, traffic violations, religion, etc.) that take on mythic proportions. In an age dominated by the nose-thumbing geek shows of reality programming, Morris' approach comes across as refreshing and even quaint, a reminder of the days before documentaries becsme as much of a mainstream commercial prospect as their fictional counterparts. Included in MGM's three-film Errol Morris collection, Vernon, Florida looks about as clean and sharp as could be expected given the limited resources of the source material, though MGM's maddening refusal to offer anamorphic enhancement for 1.66:1 titles rears its nasty head again here. Otherwise the presentation is attractive, with grain visible where it should be (mainly outdoors) and colors looking strong and stable. Optional English subtitles are included, which will be a godsend for anyone unfamiliar with Deep South dialects. French subtitles are included, too, for anyone who wants to learn how to write "gopher turtle" in other another language. You don't get much in the way of extras—just trailers for other MGM "Avant Garde" titles like The Saddest Music in the World, Coffee and Cigarettes, Kitchen Stories, and the recommended Errol Morris' First Person: The Complete Series. For more information about Vernon, Florida, visit MGM Video. To order Vernon, Floria, go to TCM Shopping. by Nathaniel Thompson