Just wanted to follow up on my posting of last week to say, yes, this documentary is indeed excellent. My attention was riveted for the entire four-hour running time.
"Belfast, Maine" gives extraordinary impact and beauty to the messages that (1) life is tough, (2) work is hard, but (3) 1&2 are easier to take when people unobtrusively care for one another. One of my favorite Belfast residents is a high school English teacher who talks about Melville to his class. I thought the teacher was a bit over the top in claiming Captain Ahab to be a working-class tragic hero (he said that Ahab was a mere "fisherman from Nantucket," not royal like a classical tragic hero -- an odd characterization of a ship's master, especially since whaling captains were typically quite wealthy); however, I much admired the teacher's remarks about "The Confidence-Man" as an acid portrait of America as a society dedicated to mutual bamboozlement.
By all means see "Belfast, Maine" if you can do so.
Carl ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com