Bright Leaves (2003) on Netflix
NR20031h 47mBiographyComedyDocumentary
No state grows more tobacco than North Carolina. A Carolinian walks the tobacco belt, weighing his great-grandfather's Bull Durham brand and the 1950 melodrama family tradition ties to the man.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb7.1/10699 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes86%
Plot summary
The film travels the tobacco belt of North Carolina with a man born there, taking in the old southern traditions of growing and using tobacco and the social and economic ground the crop has made. His family holds a place in that history: a great-grandfather created the Bull Durham brand, and family tradition holds that he contended with the Duke family patriarch, the man Duke University is named for. That same tradition adds that a 1950 melodrama about two men fighting over tobacco drew on their struggle, and the filmmaker measures his own work against commercial cinema, weighing the hold cigarettes have on people and the legacy the industry left the state.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bright Leaves (2003)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to McElwee family tradition, the struggle shown in the feature film Bright Leaf mirrors a real conflict involving Ross McElwee's great-grandfather and the head of the Duke family, the person Duke University is named after.
