Sweetgrass (2009)

For the first 20 minutes, Sweetgrass rates 5 stars for its terse but powerful cinematography: National Geographic-caliber scenes of snowy mountain pastures without narration -- just the mountain wind and a vast herd of bleating sheep. Then we begin seeing and hearing the ranchers who are tending their sheep in this environment. Their words do not amount to dialog per se; the chatter is for the most part folksy, muffled, and incidental, so it serves as background noise almost like the sheep bleating. Just the same, the verbiage tends to distract from the film's natural setting -- and the deleted scenes would have exacerbated the situation if left in. Sweetgrass is a superb slice-of-life story of the rugged outdoorsmanship of sheep ranchers as they packride their way night and day through the mountains -- a way of life that is now gone. You see and hear the taciturn slow-burn mantras of ranchers for whom the words "cowboy philosophy" sound like a contradiction in terms. (For one thing, cattle and sheep ranchers seem to prefer words of one syllable or at most two. For another, their thought process may take days or weeks of reflection in isolation before resulting in a verdict -- of one syllable or at most two.) You feel for the young rancher who calls his mom at night on the cell phone because the trail is long and hard -- or the one guy who finally cracks and just bellows one curse word for several minutes at the hundreds of sheep that have been surrounding him and bleating nonstop for days. Traveling under these conditions is never easy -- then throw in vast herds of cantankerous sheep that need to be shown (or shoved) the way they should go. The camp gear looks really old and unwieldy too. So don't you dare sniff at or criticize these ranchers unless you can do what they have done -- if you could survive Facebook withdrawal for more than one day! Properly viewed, Sweetgrass is a Zen-like, almost spiritual experience. Reserve yourself some time to watch it without interruption. If you are open to the experience, it will be good for what ails you. Except for the deleted scenes, the bonus features are worth viewing too. Enjoy! 4.5 stars. (10-31-10)