Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch Sherman's March
1986 · Ross McElwee · Sherman's March on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 3 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Listen for two different versions of McElwee's voice. (sound)
One voice talks inside scenes as they happen. A second, whispered voice-over, recorded later in darkened rooms, comments on and often undercuts the first.
Payoff: You are hearing a man argue with his own past self in real time.
Watch for mock-scholarly intertitles tracking Sherman's progress. (structure)
Cards report the general's military advance through Georgia while McElwee's own romantic search stalls out beside it, the two timelines running in ironic counterpoint.
Payoff: History marches forward on schedule. His own life very pointedly does not.
Watch the camera sit at hip or chest level, unsteady. (camera)
Because McElwee operates the camera himself while talking to people, the framing lags and drifts rather than composing a tidy image in advance.
Payoff: The imperfection reads as honesty. You can feel one person doing everything at once.
Watch Charleen interrupt him to scold him on camera. (staging)
His former teacher recurs across the film to tell him he hides behind the lens and to try to arrange his love life for him.
Payoff: One recurring character keeps saying out loud what the rest of the film only implies about him.
Watch for kudzu, monuments, and old historical markers. (setting)
Quieter, more contemplative shots of Southern landscape and Civil War-era markers recur between the conversations and courtships.
Payoff: The land keeps holding onto a history nobody on screen is actively discussing.
The 3 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch what the camera lets him avoid doing. It is his alibi and his only company.