Save your money for something good and enjoyable

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I was in 3D design class and my professor was under the weather. So, instead of trying to teach and get nothing accomplished and irritate his already hoarse throat, he rolled in a television and put this movie on. Within a couple of minutes, I was captured. It's that kind of intense focus where you totally forget where you are and who is around you. All I could think of was how brilliant Andy Goldsworthy was, and how masterfully his life and his work were captured by Reidelsheimer. I walked out of class that day just completely blown away. I think the agreement between Goldsworthy's art and the film were remarkable. I have never seen anything like it. It is such a beautiful film. As an aspiring film maker and current film student, this movie does more than address fine artists. It speaks to the artist inside of everyone. Whether you go to art school, doodle in church hymnals, or draw shapes in the dirt, Goldsworthy hits you in the creative sternum so hard, you can not help but to want to create. And the fact that that translates so well over film is a credit to Goldsworthy's passion and aura, but almost more so to the film maker himself. This is a must see for anyone. Anyone.

I really enjoyed learning about the artist profiled in this film and, while I admire the filmmaker's laid back approach to his subject, I often felt that there was such an even pace to the whole affair that one could take all the scenes of this film, place them in random order, and end up with basically the same film.This is not to say that Goldsworthy's art isn't remarkable in it's own right. The painstaking process through which he constructs his installations out of found natural elements is itself beautiful and instructive. The music is inoffensive but keeps things in the same low-key arena as the other elements of the film. I wish I had seen this in the theater, though. The poetry of Goldsworthy's work and process would've resonated all that more deeply.

As a person who sought out an existence as a 'professional' person with income backed by a BS in Chemistry and MS in Business Management, my sanity was always spasmodically sustained in outside indulgences in things more artistic. My post-post graduate classes were always emotionally and spiritually supported by an interest in photography, stained-glass, ceramics, metal forging/welding, and art drawing that also included silk screening.I also keep healthy with jogging, walking and lately, hiking to remote destinations in California and nearby states like Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Jogging, walking and hiking gets one close to the earth with time to stop and watch and listen and also photograph or record sounds.Within that background, I was obsessed with RIVERS AND TIDES. I was equally impressed with the documentary content of artist Andy Goldsworthy as well as the skills and smoothness of Director/Cinematographer Thomas Riedelsheimer. I actually could not separate the art of Goldsworthy with camera path of Riedelsheimer.Wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful.

I found this film inspirational! I think most of us could afford to be more in touch with the natural world, its beauties and its fragility. Goldsworthy understands and works with, and in, nature. In the truest and purest sense, he is an artist, an artist with a profound respect for the natural world.I did not find the film to be boring or repetitive at all as some have said they did. I never, for a moment, lost interest in its images, words or message, ...and the composer created a soundtrack that beautifully blended with, and enhanced the film. My feeling is that those who think the film is boring, who think Goldsworthy is echoing some of the "earthworks and environmental art of the Sixties and Seventies," are missing its point. If Goldsworthy draws at all from what went before, I think his message... his art... is far more moving and worthy in its truth and relevence in the frightening world in which we now live! As I write this, images of war dominate the media... If there were more human beings like Goldsworthy, we might not find ourselves in this situation now. This artist understands not only nature's beauties, but also it's fleeting qualities and fragilities. This movie is as much about "time" as it is about nature... but nature, after all, IS about time - about birth, growth, maturity, death... How very sad it is that some human beings seem to need to hurt and kill others, to destroy, to dominate, to own, to take over. Goldsworthy realizes that we can't really do these things. He realizes that no matter what he creates with and in the natural world, these things will change, evolve, decompose, die, perhaps even be reborn... and what he does create is made with sensitivity, and an utter respect for all of the plants, animals, and humans around him... with a gentleness that we all could learn from...Yes, it is true that we see very little of Goldsworthy's family, and we don't get a real sense of who they are. I find myself wondering what his marriage is really like. He seems to need a lot of time alone, out in nature... time away from other people... and maybe his wife's OK with that, but are his children? Having said this, my feeling about Rivers and Tides is that Goldworthy is a remarkable artist and man. I hope that many more people see this film! Word seems to be getting out about him, and more and more of the general public - not just the artistic community and independent film buffs - are seeing, and loving, this movie!