I think Nobody’s Business is one of the most awesome movie/documentaries I have ever seen. Its hard for me to describe why I like it, but its awesome. Though of course this is a professionally made documentary, yet at the same time it is very “unprofessional”. Instead of fancy charts and zooming pictures, the film just interweaves stock footage, and his footage in a very cleaver way. I think the best way for me to describe this movie is that it is a really well made home movie.
One of the aspects that I love about the film is how “imperfect” it is. The father is really quite the character who fights against the interviewer, his son. The father is a strong and distinct character, he has his opinions and he speaks his mind out about it. One of the main aspects of the film is the son’s struggle with his father on various subjects. No matter how the much the son tries, he can never change his father’s opinion. It’s a movie where the interview is off on an adventure to discover his heritage. Unlike Hollywood movies, where just about everything is pretty predictable and the protagonist usually gets what he wants, this movie was the opposite. The movie was full of disappointments where the interviewer never finds his great grandparents grave, he is never able to convince his father and never really learns much about it his history. But with all the film’s imperfections, it questions the importance of whether knowing you’re history matters, or if anything in life really matters.
I have only watched a few scenes of this documentary in class, but I enjoyed reading your analysis on the imperfections of the documentary that "made" the film a great one. I just watched the film "An Inconvenient Truth," which provides the audience with very fancy graphs, photos, and animation clips. I wonder what this film would be like if the charts and graphs were not as "fancy"? It seems like in "Nobody's Business" fanciness was not needed, rather the way the film was edited was definitely more important. From the clips I have seen, the filmmaker is very clever and artistic in the way he transitions and cuts shots/scenes. Furthermore, I get from your analysis that the characters seem very human. They are human because of their imperfections. I enjoy films that are not afraid to reveal imperfections of the themselves, such as this filmmaker (the son). Though the son failed to get what he wanted, he ultimately arrived at a bigger, and greater question. I'll have to watch this film. Thanks!
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