I'll start off by writing that the director and protagonist have died withing months of this film's release. The director spun out on Old Waverly Road near West Point, to hear tell. The hero of the film committed suicide shortly after. That said, the premiere of this film was quite the eye opener. Citizen Shane Ballard, fresh from his unsuccessful run for sheriff of Lowndes County, proud of having garnered 666, yes, 666 votes in the Republican primary, worked the crowd at the film festival. He was an imposing young man indeed. The director and promoter of the film festival, Ron Tibbett, was gracious and radiated warmth. It was a good night in Starkville, Mississippi. But on to the film...
This documentary is pretty gonzo, with a half serious filming of a half serious campaign that contains half serious ads. The ads, which solemnly declare candidate Ballard's pro-pornography platform, were too much for the people of Mississippi to swallow. We follow him and the director/campaign manager as they canvass voters, chill at the house, party, and veer to the site where the candidate's mother was murdered fourteen years before-an unsolved crime that we hope will be solved once Shane becomes sheriff. We listen as Shane gets a pep talk from prisoner Charles Manson over the phone. (The closing music of the film is by the latter).
I kept having a hard time believing that everything in the film was true, but it was. Within all the craziness of this film, though, are some painful moments, quiet ones that a viewer caught up in the viewing could miss. It's easy to simply roll through the film, watching stunt on top of stunt, but it's the moments between the outrage that I found moving.
The death of these two men makes it difficult for me to watch it again.
