Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Really Surprised!

A Masterpiece!

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

I know a lot of people say this documentary uses the raw filming to tell the story, but it's just too bland. What they could have done was interviewed the cowboys more. Had them show us how they do some of the basic things involved in the scenes. Instead we're stuck watching for nearly 5 minutes straight as a sheep sits there, then is dragged to a separate pen, then the farmer stands there and just looks a while, then drags the sheep a little more. I mean this is not good film work at all. It's boring plain and simple. A lot of the movie is like this. And you will see the o so genius critics rave about it (while they give movies like The Shining, Fight Club, and Sucker Punch horrible reviews). So understand critics are very susceptible to group think while they also like to pretend they see something you don't (when many times they miss the obvious while thinking they're so awesome). So the movie is slow, poorly made, and horribly edited. But what makes it not matter is the scenery and the fact that you're watching an actual sheep drive.

Sweetgrass is a documentary, literally: a document of a particular place, time and events. There's no narration, no host or guide, and seemingly no attempt to edit the footage to tell a story. Each scene appears to be chosen because it illuminates the subject, rather than for drama.The camera records a group of sheep farmers and herders preparing a flock and getting them across the mountains. The focus is on everyday details of animal tending and herding, straightforward and unsentimental. The people working with the sheep seem mostly unconscious of the cameras, just going about their business. It's like seeing into another life.Of course, it's another life that's centered around sheep. If that sounds boring, this probably isn't the film for you, because that's all there is to it, and it's slow-paced. It's very different from Discovery Channel style documentaries that try to teach and entertain. There's no Mike Rowe here to relate everything he's doing to you so that you can understand what's going on.But there's something to be said for just watching things happen.The movie isn't trying to reach out and explain itself to you, and that enables it to draw you in, if you're willing to go along for the ride.

Have disagree with the reviewer who said this was not an accurate portrayal of sheep and shepherds. There are different management practices and this movie depicted one of them. These folks shear in late winter and lamb in the spring. Shearing before lambing is done for several reasons--less moisture in the barn from long, wet wool; easier for the lambs to find the udder when it isn't buried in wool. In my experience with sheep, I've found that ewes definitely find their lambs both by sound and by smell. That's why they are put in small pens, called jugs, for a day or so after lambing so that they can bond and learn to recognize each other's unique sound and smell. That's why the ewes will reject any lamb that doesn't smell or sound like their own. I thought the movie was beautifully filmed and accurately showed the hard and sometimes frustrating work that goes into managing a large range flock.

At one point in this wonderful work, the camera is high in the Montana Beartooths above the cowboys with their 3000 sheep coming up the mountain for some good-weather grazing. The woolies are getting to be all over the place and you see a lone cowboy in the saddle with the help of a few sheepdogs corraling the herd purely by the way he moves his horse around and by the calls he makes. Gracefully and neatly he tightens up the herd and turns it in the direction he wants the little bleaters to go. He creates a fence invisible 'round his woolies.It's that kind of skill, no, art that is so evident in these guys: keeping order in the herd, whittling rough branches for the spines of their tents, sleeping with one ear open for sounds of bear and wolverine, sharpshooting in the night aided only by lamp. These guys do it all and well. They can also midwife a ewe in the crisis of giving birth, find an udder for an orphaned lamb and cleanly, expertly fleece these critters when the wool is heavy.These cowboys never get rich inspite of a bagful of skills and talents that leave the viewer in respectful admiration. Watching the travail of these guys makes you realize you have never in your life known the true meaning of "hard work." This is a documentary without any taped-on background music and without any warm-toned narrator telling you what you're seeing. Not even Morgan Freeman. The footage tells the story without extraneous aids. The absence of other noise is welcome. This piece is awesome but it's also funny, not just in the humanity of the cowboys. There's some real comic talent among those woolies, too. Jim Smith