Sherman's March
dir. Ross McElwee · 1986
Life is a journey of self-discovery that often leads us to confront our personal struggles and relationships.
A filmmaker sets out to trace the path of General Sherman’s march through the South, but instead finds himself navigating the complexities of his own heart after a recent breakup. Watching it feels like wandering through a Southern landscape filled with both historical echoes and personal revelations, where each encounter reveals more about the filmmaker's inner life than the history he initially sought to document.
Documentarian Ross McElwee originally set out to make a travelogue of sorts tracing General William T. Sherman's infamous scorched-earth march through the Confederacy in the latter stages of the Civil War. Instead, haunted by a recent breakup with a girlfriend, McElwee ends up documenting his progress -- or lack thereof -- in starting a new relationship. His journey then becomes one of self-reflection and self-discovery rather than a historical/sociological exploration.
