The Rough South of Larry Brown (2002)

Director:

Gary Hawkins

Writer:

Gary Hawkins (writer)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

The life and works of Oxford, Miss. fireman-turned-writer Larry Brown are examined in a unique documentary...

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Will Patton	...	Frank in 'Samaritans'
Natalie Canerday	...	Woman in 'Samaritans'
Dakota Smith	...	Boy in Bar in 'Samaritans'
Paul Schneider	...	Voice-over / Man in 'Wild Thing'
Kendra Cover	...	Wild Thing
Gaye-Taylor Upchurch	...	Wife in 'Wild Thing'
Vic Chesnutt	...	Narrator in 'Boy & Dog'
Justin Stone	...	Boy in 'Boy & Dog'
Brent Burditt	...	Hero in 'Boy & Dog'
Larry Brown	...	Fire Chief in 'Boy & Dog'
David Gordon Green	...	Fireman in 'Boy & Dog'
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Scott Clackum	...	Mustang Driver

Runtime:

79 min | USA:85 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Ledford, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Blue Moon Filmed Productions

Soundtrack:

NOZZLE OF THE BELLOWS

Compelling biography of a writer who will be missed

The film begins and ends with a the same shot: a man sitting on the roof of his unfinished building, a project he apparently works on only at night, smoking a cigarette and staring off into the dark woods beyond him. The man is Larry Brown, and this shot captures in a single instant the seemingly simple, yet extraordinarily complex, nature of this Southerner, Mississippian, writer of great fiction who one might call, for lack of a more precise definition, a post-agrarian William Faulkner for his understanding of the same Mississippi soil or a Southern Raymond Carver for his often minimalist technique.

Larry Brown's story is a fascinating one about a man who, though he has very little formal education, is able to sit and write story after story and novel after novel and keep doing it despite almost years of continual rejection by publishers. Then in 1988 his first book, a collection of stories called Facing the Music, is published and receives the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Literature. Go figure. Larry Brown was a brilliant and gifted writer who, had he not kept on writing in light of so many setbacks, would never be known for the genius he was. His perseverance is a big theme of Hawkins's film.

Since the film was made and released prior to Larry Brown's death in 2004, it currently contains some scenes which may or may not appear in the actual DVD release (scheduled to appear sometime within the next year according to Mr. Hawkins). In light of the writer's untimely death, I imagine that that a final version of the film will include snippets of interviews that may not have seemed relevant at the time of the initial editing, but that the filmmakers may now want to include.

In one statement, Brown remarks that he has several more years left to write. Sadly, he never made it that far and never will. His admirers (and you will be one after you read anything he has written) can only wonder what he may have done.

Larry Brown gave dignity to a familiar, but often stigmatized character type: uneducated, blue-collar, Southern men and women who smoke and drink too much, usually drive pick-up trucks with dogs and shotguns in the back, drink cheap beer in seedy bars, and sleep around a lot. He showed the world the suppressed humanity of these people. Here is a writer who is, and will forever be, sorely missed.