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This 'New Jack' Western shoots off in all directions but never hits home. There's much historical revisionism on offer – one third of cowboys were black, apparently – but the only source material that really counts here is old movies (The Wild Bunch, The Magnificent Seven, and, especially, Leone). A refugee from the Spanish-American war, Mario Van Peebles' Jessie Lee leads a band of deserters west to Cutter's Town, where he has a score to settle. On his tail is sadistic Colonel Graham (Zane) and his 'Iron Brigade'. The jarring 1990s sensibility of this over-directed, under-written movie extends to style as well as content. Worst of all is the blatantly fetishistic attitude the director adopts towards his posturing macho star.

A group of teenagers who have
formed a band and want to make the big time on the bluegrass music scene in
Nashville, Tennessee: not such a strange bunch, until you realize that these
teenagers have come all the way from Russia for their shot at musical fame. A
Russian country music band? Yes, that's right, and The Ballad of Bering
Strait is a documentary that follows these young musicians from their early
entrance into the United States all the way to the beginnings of success.

The Ballad of Bering Strait
sets up a premise that seems interesting, even to me, who has little interest
in and even less knowledge of the bluegrass/country music scene. The film could
have used that premise to explore a number of interesting aspects of the
situation, including the nature of the music industry, the process of getting a
record contract and succeeding as a band, and the contrasting cultures of
Russia and the United States. Unfortunately, what we actually get is a
strangely unfocused, uninformative piece that only skims over what it could
have delved into.

Director Nina Gilden Seavey
followed the Bering Strait band members around for nearly three years while
making this film; in that time, she undoubtedly became intimately familiar with
the band members' histories and personalities. What she seems to have forgotten
in putting the film together, though, is that the film's viewers utterly lack
the experiential context to immediately appreciate what's going on: it's the
documentary's responsibility to create that context, and it fails in that
regard.

Judging from the cover, there
are six members of Bering Strait, but we are never clearly introduced to them.
Snippets of the film are devoted to various members of the group, but they are
not presented in a coherent manner, and some are highlighted more than others.
Without knowing their names or anything about them, it becomes difficult to
appreciate their progress (or lack of it) as a group; more than a set of
characters whom we're interested in, they're a generic "Russian
teenagers" group. Midway through the film, this lack of clear presentation
of the different players is highlighted when suddenly they start talking about
how they had to replace one of the band members because he wasn't working out
right. Not only was this not even hinted at earlier (when the band seemed to be
one happy family), and the reasons behind it left unexplained, but it's not
even clear which one of the group they're talking about. When we finally get a
clip with that band member, I didn't even particularly recognize him; the lack
of a solid introduction had snowballed to the point that I didn't have any idea
who was whom.

The identity of the different
people involved with the band is not the only thing that The Ballad of
Bering Strait leaves poorly explained. In fact, hardly anything actually is
explained at all. The film jumps around from Russia to the United States, and
hops back in time at various points to fill in bits of background, and never
really establishes a clear narrative line. Some date subtitles are provided,
indicating the progression of time, but these offer little useful information
in the absence of a coherent structure overall. The most useful guide to the
structure of the film is actually the list of chapter titles in the insert:
glancing at these titles reveals a structure that's not at all clear in the
film itself.

The thread of the film follows
the band as it tries to get a record deal in the United States, and touches on
the difficulties and challenges the band has in the process, but far too many
questions are left unanswered. What prompted the various members of the band to
take up bluegrass, hardly a typical Russian choice? What prospects did they
have as musicians in Russia? We are told briefly of their musical studies in
school, but it's never clear whether this is the equivalent of high school,
college, or something in between. Many more unanswered questions pile up as the
film proceeds, and unfortunately these are exactly the questions whose answers
would have provided interesting substance for the film.

All in all, The Ballad of
Bering Strait isn't bad, just unsatisfying. The behind-the-scenes look at
the process of getting "discovered" and getting a record contract is
at least mildly interesting as presented. Those viewers who are interested in
bluegrass music to begin with will probably find the most to like in this film.

Movie's descriptions, plots, actors and really cheap downloading

A group of teenagers who have
formed a band and want to make the big time on the bluegrass music scene in
Nashville, Tennessee: not such a strange bunch, until you realize that these
teenagers have come all the way from Russia for their shot at musical fame. A
Russian country music band? Yes, that's right, and The Ballad of Bering
Strait is a documentary that follows these young musicians from their early
entrance into the United States all the way to the beginnings of success.

The Ballad of Bering Strait
sets up a premise that seems interesting, even to me, who has little interest
in and even less knowledge of the bluegrass/country music scene. The film could
have used that premise to explore a number of interesting aspects of the
situation, including the nature of the music industry, the process of getting a
record contract and succeeding as a band, and the contrasting cultures of
Russia and the United States. Unfortunately, what we actually get is a
strangely unfocused, uninformative piece that only skims over what it could
have delved into.

Director Nina Gilden Seavey
followed the Bering Strait band members around for nearly three years while
making this film; in that time, she undoubtedly became intimately familiar with
the band members' histories and personalities. What she seems to have forgotten
in putting the film together, though, is that the film's viewers utterly lack
the experiential context to immediately appreciate what's going on: it's the
documentary's responsibility to create that context, and it fails in that
regard.

Judging from the cover, there
are six members of Bering Strait, but we are never clearly introduced to them.
Snippets of the film are devoted to various members of the group, but they are
not presented in a coherent manner, and some are highlighted more than others.
Without knowing their names or anything about them, it becomes difficult to
appreciate their progress (or lack of it) as a group; more than a set of
characters whom we're interested in, they're a generic "Russian
teenagers" group. Midway through the film, this lack of clear presentation
of the different players is highlighted when suddenly they start talking about
how they had to replace one of the band members because he wasn't working out
right. Not only was this not even hinted at earlier (when the band seemed to be
one happy family), and the reasons behind it left unexplained, but it's not
even clear which one of the group they're talking about. When we finally get a
clip with that band member, I didn't even particularly recognize him; the lack
of a solid introduction had snowballed to the point that I didn't have any idea
who was whom.

The identity of the different
people involved with the band is not the only thing that The Ballad of
Bering Strait leaves poorly explained. In fact, hardly anything actually is
explained at all. The film jumps around from Russia to the United States, and
hops back in time at various points to fill in bits of background, and never
really establishes a clear narrative line. Some date subtitles are provided,
indicating the progression of time, but these offer little useful information
in the absence of a coherent structure overall. The most useful guide to the
structure of the film is actually the list of chapter titles in the insert:
glancing at these titles reveals a structure that's not at all clear in the
film itself.

The thread of the film follows
the band as it tries to get a record deal in the United States, and touches on
the difficulties and challenges the band has in the process, but far too many
questions are left unanswered. What prompted the various members of the band to
take up bluegrass, hardly a typical Russian choice? What prospects did they
have as musicians in Russia? We are told briefly of their musical studies in
school, but it's never clear whether this is the equivalent of high school,
college, or something in between. Many more unanswered questions pile up as the
film proceeds, and unfortunately these are exactly the questions whose answers
would have provided interesting substance for the film.

All in all, The Ballad of
Bering Strait isn't bad, just unsatisfying. The behind-the-scenes look at
the process of getting "discovered" and getting a record contract is
at least mildly interesting as presented. Those viewers who are interested in
bluegrass music to begin with will probably find the most to like in this film.

Movie’s descriptions, plots, actors and really cheap downloading