The Rough South of Harry Crews

I have only recently been privileged to see Gary Hawkins's Emmy-winning documentary featuring the inimitable Harry Crews; Crews dominates the film with the intensity of his personality, his ideas about writing, his sense of himself as a creature of the South.

Hawkins was right to focus on Crews himself, whose force of personality carries a film which successfully introduces the viewer to Crews and his work; besides concentrating on Crews's extended monologues, Hawkins made superb choices regarding the few others who appear on the film: the author's mother, almost as intense as Harry Crews himself, offers insights into her son's early history. Larry Brown, who considered Crews a "friend and mentor," offers praise and analysis. Professor Jerry Leith Mills offers academic perspectives on Crews and his work without pontificating.

Over all, Hawkins produced an outstanding film, one that showcases its subject with power and certainty.