Gillian Sanders is a sheriff in charge of Port Meadow who polices the grazing of animals on common ground with the help of her ranger. However this is not the wild west but rather modern day Oxford, and the grazing takes place on the commons land that is free for grazing. This film watches them (and volunteers) rounding up free grazing cattle and horses while discussing the working of the commons.
For the Screen West Midlands funding stream "First Cut", 2004 was the year of the documentary and, yet again I held some vague aspiration to actually put my money where my mouth was and take part, however I never managed to get around to it! Seeing the end products, I'm not sure I would have had anything to really make a film about because the films are mostly pretty personal pieces. This film has a nice comic tone to it that plays with the idea of having a sheriff in this day and age but then also reveals the meaning of her job while looking at the commons and that is reasonably well done.
The common land is land that is not owned by anyone and is for communal use. Of course the practicality of this has changed since those times but the spirit is still the same and I think this is what the film is admiring. The humour works pretty well despite being rather obvious throughout, but I wanted more factual stuff and emotional/engaging dialogue from those involved. Instead it just generally looks at the common land and is not much more than amiable, where really I was engaged by it and ready to be drawn in further however the film stopped where it should have gone further.
Overall this is an OK film but not one that will linger in your memory long. It doesn't have that much going for it beyond a bit of charming humour and originality in its subject but, having won me over with those, it didn't do anything else. Enjoyable, forgettable and a little disappointing.
For the Screen West Midlands funding stream "First Cut", 2004 was the year of the documentary and, yet again I held some vague aspiration to actually put my money where my mouth was and take part, however I never managed to get around to it! Seeing the end products, I'm not sure I would have had anything to really make a film about because the films are mostly pretty personal pieces. This film has a nice comic tone to it that plays with the idea of having a sheriff in this day and age but then also reveals the meaning of her job while looking at the commons and that is reasonably well done.
The common land is land that is not owned by anyone and is for communal use. Of course the practicality of this has changed since those times but the spirit is still the same and I think this is what the film is admiring. The humour works pretty well despite being rather obvious throughout, but I wanted more factual stuff and emotional/engaging dialogue from those involved. Instead it just generally looks at the common land and is not much more than amiable, where really I was engaged by it and ready to be drawn in further however the film stopped where it should have gone further.
Overall this is an OK film but not one that will linger in your memory long. It doesn't have that much going for it beyond a bit of charming humour and originality in its subject but, having won me over with those, it didn't do anything else. Enjoyable, forgettable and a little disappointing.