Wisconsin Death Trip details
| Format: | 15 DVD |
|---|---|
| Starring: | Jeff Golden, Marcus Monroe, Marilyn White, Raeleen McMillion, Krista Grambow, John Schneider, Jo Vukelich |
| Director: | James Marsh |
| Genres: | Documentary - General, History, Drama - Historical |
| Studio: | PALISADES TARTAN |
| Name | Discs | |
|---|---|---|
Wisconsin Death Trip |
15 Feature |
DVD Information
| Run time: | 1 hour 15 minutes |
|---|---|
| Rental release: | 24 May 2004 |
| Main languages: | English |
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Most helpful review
Settlers Unsettled
By Ruth Jenner from Surbiton , 15 Sep 2004[Highly rated reviewer]
Distilled from period newspaper reports into a book by Michael Lesy, director James Marsh has taken the astonishing events that took place in Wisconsin's Black River Falls between 1890 and 1900, and made a haunting and moving documentary.
As though the very soil of this Midwest settlement was soaked in evil (there is little surprise in learning that serial killers Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer hailed from the same state), its largely German and Norwegian occupants found themselves inexplicably plagued with disease, insanity, suicide and murder.
Using original stills of the period alongside beautifully shot black and white dramatisations, Marsh has succeeded in bringing these peculiar and tragic episodes to life, although I found the intermittent current-day colour footage (presumably used here to show that human suffering will exist as long as mankind does) diluted the effect of a 'living, breathing photo album' somewhat.
A very credible telling of incredible occurrences.- Was this review helpful to you?
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(50)Is that it?
By SJBuckley (3 reviews) , 02 May 2013Don't get me wrong, a lot of my favourite films are both slow and depressing. But this was just awful. It's pretty much just a list of some bad things that happened. After the first 15 minutes I thought this was going to be a setup for something else. But it wasn't. The whole film was just a list of gruesome events with some black and white footage and some sad music. And that's it.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Slow and mysterious.
By Quamash (8 reviews) , 16 Mar 2013Interesting, but seems almost like a list of terrible happenings. Very slow and unusual. Definitely not the same type as the usual true crime films.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Beautiful and touching
By a customer , 26 Jan 2013I don't consider myself a particularly morbid person yet I found this film strangely beautiful. This, IMO, is the perfect combination of subject, imagery and soundtrack. Since watching it, I've been recommending it to everyone. Great piece.- Was this review helpful to you?
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great film ...but
By alicefitzgerald (4 reviews) , 22 Jan 2013beautifully shot , poetic , sad, strange tale, agree about the whispers, that put me off , not sure why, but the rest is superb, mysterious amount of tragedy and insanity, more than is usual perhaps. The suggestion inferred that some kind if Indian spiritual retribution took place upon white settlers is distasteful, and the only flaw in an otherwise excellent bit of filmic journalism, these people had their own demons it would seem, which is why they treated the native people so abysmally in the first place.- Was this review helpful to you?
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Whispers distracts from a very good documentary film
By BinkyMymsy (11 reviews) from High Peak , 13 Jan 2013[Highly rated reviewer]
An enjoyable and interesting film, historical images and newspaper extracts providing a slow paced yet interesting insight into a series of unique and quite unsettling events in Black River Falls. The whispering voice over about the asylum does get a little tedious and annoying though after a while!- Was this review helpful to you?
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