Winnebago Man

There is only so much to know about people who aren't willing to share who they are, but Ben Steinbauer tried milking every bit of information he could about the reclusive, well-read curmudgeon Jack Rebney, who is reluctantly the star of his own Outtake reel on YouTube. The result is a film, very similar to Alan Berliner's classic "Nobody's Business". In that, a filmmaker tries to get through to a broken down man. Jack Rebney is about as broken down as an old Winnebago, minus the accoutrement. As evident in the clip online, and in this documentary, Rebney hates the 21st century, and stupid people, and Dick Cheney... but mostly Dick Cheney. Jack is an exceptional human being, despite his temperament, and about as wise any elder you know of. Against his will, perhaps, he unravels here with the help of introspective filmmaker. This is a hilarious, fascinating documentary.

Some people see documentaries as pointless and boring films that just collect information about a topic "no one cares about." Totally not the case, especially with Winnebago Man. It is easily one of most entertaining documentaries I've seen and probably focuses on one of the quirkiest topics a film in this genre has ever touched on.

For those unfamiliar, "The Winnebgo Man" is a video from the late eighties that was passes around from VHS tape to VHS tape like a virus. The video consisted of a man, presumably in late forties or early fifties, named Jack Rebney swearing between cuts and takes off a commercial him and his crew were shooting over the course of two weeks. Normally, once a take is shot and something fails in the middle of the take, the camera immediately stops rolling. The crew decided they couldn't hit stop just when Jack Rebney messed up and decided to keep the camera rolling just a tad bit longer.

The lines Rebney drops make me laugh just thinking about them. Quotes like "Will you do me a kindness?" "Don't slam the f**king door...no more!" "God, I can't f**king make my mind work!" and "The acutrama that you will need, ACUTRAMA? What is that s**t?" are all just little tastes of the rage Rebney delivers in the four and a half minute clip. In 2005, a video sharing site named "Youtube" opened and the video as uploaded to the site currently boasting over six million views.

The real question was, what happened to Jack? Ben Steinbauer, the filmmaker responsible for this film, is hellbent on trying to answer that question. He calls in a private investigator to try and track down Rebney in hopes that he can answer one of his hundreds of questions. At first, it seems like a lost cause. He has no voting registration, no social networking accounts, and the Winnebago company stated after firing him for verbal abuse to employees they heard nothing from him and they didn't want too.

Ben finally finds Jack on a remote mountain in Northern California living a secluded lifestyle and being "a hermit" as he refers to himself. He has a a dog, he is going blind, and has a George Carlin/everybody's crabby grandpa type attitude towards everything. He is now seventy-eight years old and has published a book called Jousting With the Myth.

Ben is such a fan of "The Winnebago Man" clip that he shockingly did this out of the goodness of pure groupie curiosity. He is a likable guy and even goes into a detailed background about his obsession with the video saying how if he had a bad day at work he'd pop in the tape and also explain how he showed it to his grandmother and his dates.

Winnebago Man was included in a ten pack of Dvds my uncle purchased from the Found Footage Festival, a festival that two average joes named Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher put together showing random clips from VHS tapes they got from garage sales, thrift stores, etc. At the end of the film, Ben convinces Jack to make an appearance at the festival because the two men think of Jack like a movie star.

Being at the festival lands the brightest part of the film; Jack interacting with the fans he thought he never had. The boys ask him "What is an acutrama?" to spice things up. While the actual definition is an add on for something, Jack explains that he didn't know whether it was pronounced "acutrama" or "acutramaw." But he then goes onto say "When you're in Iowa, in a forrest, and it's 100 degrees it's f**king acutrama!" Starring: Ben Steinbauer and Jack Rebney. Directed by: Ben Steinbauer.

Ben Steinbauer's documentary about Jack Rebney is an interesting and entertaining piece of filmmaking. I realize there is a huge sub-culture of "YouTube junkies" mind-boggling in diversity and size. Because I do not regularly peruse YouTube videos I was unaware of one of the most iconic characters ever to achieve a kind of mass popularity in cyberspace: "Jack Rebney, The Angriest Man In The World". It is definitely a cultural phenomenon whereby a man who would otherwise be as unknown as any other has become a world-wide star. His dialog, and I'm not just talking about his profanity, has transcended the internet ending up even in Hollywood movies. The industrial video he made for Winnebago probably helped shift some units by helping dealers sell their product...maybe not? But, the outtakes, which originally only went to a few executives at Winnebago and the crew, have transcended time place and product & will "live in infamy" on the internet and within pop-culture.

How could one man's frustration shooting an "infomercial" come to this? Who is the man, the so-called "Angriest Man in The World"? What became of him after the video and, more saliently, is he still alive? These are some of the questions that Ben Steinbauer was interested in and he had to expend some effort, indeed, because Jack Rebney had long ago retreated and become a true hermit. Finally when Steinbauer found Jack, Jack was not often not honest, but still capable of great bursts of anger-many times still laced with language more suitable to jail and wartime. Jack is a juxtaposition who finds his notoriety irritating and intoxicating. He seems miffed that he is a kind of cultural icon due to the internet, more specifically due to film he thought shouldn't have ever existed in the first place. Perhaps in his seclusion he has found peace, but you get the feeling that under the surface he's mad as hell still with a lot of it centering around events culminating with the George W. Bush presidency. At one point I think Jack believes Ben's movie will to allow him to profess his manifesto regarding politics (and the general decline of the United States) which, it seems evident, is where Jack thinks his importance to his audience should lie. Ben tries to make it clear he seeking something more like how Jack got to the point he was as when he made the Winnebago video, that is what his fans are more interested in. This serves to irritate Jack and all grinds to a halt for quite some time. Ben does an end-around and finds a way to get back to Jack though and because of that we do end up getting this documentary.

As mentioned earlier, the film Winnebago Man is entertaining. We get a slice of Jack Rebney, though not a whole picture of who this man really is. The holes are unavoidable as Jack Rebney has covered his tracks, purposely fell away from the day-to-day trappings of civilization. Who Jack is, perhaps, is truly only known to Jack himself and he is playing his cards close.

In the end "Winnebago Man" fans are not terribly interested in Jack's life-story and/or his deeper views. The whole phenomenon rests on actually seeing a man voice "over-the-top" frustration so frequently and with, seemingly, bottomless profanity. Ben Steinbauer succeeds admirably by, first, finding the man behind the expletives who can still get just as frustrated and angry. This is what Jack's fans love him for...he's like us, but he has no need to fit in at all anymore. To coin Jack: "You believe any of that $#!+"?

Alright, here we go: this is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, on any subject. It's not only for members of the Cult of Rebney (in case you live under a g--damn rock, I'm talking about Jack Rebney: the Winnebago Man, the Angriest Man in the World, the original viral video star, and the greatest swearer who ever lived).

The film has comedy: Rebney is one of the great crotchety old men of all time.

It has mystery: who is this monumental man, where does he live, what's the deal with his anger, what the f--k is this thing?

It has commentary: most Americans have "room-temperature IQs," the Ford Fiesta (or is it Festiva?) is a great car, and Bush-Cheney-Rumseld-Rove all deserve hot pokers up their a--es.

It also has flies, towels, windshields, seat belts, yelling, doors slamming, s--t hitting the fan, all types of "accoutrama"...and, last but not least, Tony! (If you have no clue what any of this means, go to YouTube and search "winnebago man.")

See this film ASAP, ya g--damn jackass. Or you can put it up your fern, if you want to.

NO MORE!

Jack Rebney became an early unwitting YouTube sensation when a 1989 tape of outtakes from an RV Promotional film starring him were leaked on the site. Rebney's angry curse-strewn outbursts delighted millions who mocked his misery.

Director Ben Steinbauer decided to track him down. He had seemingly disappeared. The Winnebago company completely disassociated itself from Rebney. The small crew who shot the 80s video remembered the shoot well, but had no idea where he had gone. Finally, a P. I. gave Steinbauer a clue that lead to a meeting. Rebney had retreated to a remote mountain in northern California and lived alone.

About half an hour in, and the Documentary seemed complete. It lays out the backstory. Rebney is found alive and doing well enough. The end? Instead, Steinbauer inserts himself into his subject's life. Poking. Prodding. Asking him to go public. Address his "fans." It can be a fine line between journalism and intrusion.

After MUCH toing and froing, Steinbauer stages a happy ending of sorts. He convinces Rebney to travel down to San Francisco and attend a screening of his Winnebago Man outtakes for a gathering of his superfans at the Found Footage Film Festival. To be fair, Rebney seems happy to be out in public and meet his 'public'. A hermit getting a day out.

Early in the Doc, a pair of other superfans are interviewed. They tell Steinbauer that there is no reason to trace where Rebney has gone to. Why? They ask. Who wants to see the Wizard behind the curtain? As bemused as Rebney seems to be at the end, one has to wonder whether he would have been just a pleased - if not more so - if he had just been left alone.