I'm not usually into documentaries, but this film has stuck with me for weeks now. The stories of who we have been as humans and as Americans...I just found it all captivating. The best of ourselves is this human spirit that wants to discover and explore and find the next great thing. But that's coupled with the worst of ourselves: desperation for greatness, vigilante law, everyone out for themselves. You can see & feel all of it in this story. What I particularly loved was that about halfway through I realized that the images I was seeing weren't all old photos from the time. They were live camera shots in b&w. You could see the leaves blowing in the wind as you looked upon these old ghost towns that had been left standing. It made it all the more chilling to know that I could have been standing right where that camera was and it would have been the same. The makers of the film didn't try to 'jazz up' the information for our new time. They trusted the towns to tell their own stories by way of their very presence and simply paired it with great story-telling & narration, which I thought was brave and lovely. The final shot of the film is one I want framed and put in my house...a gorgeous film with a captivating story. All around, well worth the watching.
