God's Country

It is believed that great directors tend to be amazing success with their fiction films but sometimes fail ignominiously when they make documentaries.In the past,famous French director Louis Malle deprecated India's vibrant cultures and traditions by making some rather insipid documentaries which focused more on India's poverty.In "God's Country", he chose to somewhat denigrate quiet American lifestyle by making an indistinct documentary film about a sleepy town Minnesotan town called Glencoe.God's country is a philosophical yet funny title for a documentary film about an obscure town as it has many churches.This has been suggested as this town's divine element.One of the major problems with this documentary by Louis Malle is that there is an absolute lack of coherency between different scenes.He moves carelessly from one person to another person without bothering to establish a common narrative element.This is the reason why we see a medley of people from Glencoe who have nothing in common.Louis Malle makes his documentary film appear serious by setting it in two different times.However,in both cases his motives are not clearly established.We fail to ascertain whether this is a Frenchman's look at some sleepy part of America or an established French filmmaker's innocent look at America.As a layman would normally consider a documentary film as a burden on the brain,God's country is not so much of a brain damaging exercise as its light subject matter provides for an easy viewing experience.This is the only positive aspect of this documentary film.