Vernon, Florida (1981) on Netflix
NR198155mDocumentary
A documentary on Vernon, Florida, and its eccentric residents. A preacher works through the meaning of the word "therefore," and a turkey hunter speaks of the gobblers he tracks.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.0/103,965 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Vernon, Florida is a small Southern town, and its eccentric residents are heard one after another. The project did not begin that way. It started as a study of townspeople who had collected insurance money after losing limbs in accidents, and an early version carried the title Nub City. A year spent in Vernon asking about those cases brought hostility and a death threat, and once a truck was driven at the cinematographer. That angle was dropped, and the film turns instead to the town itself: its residents and their eccentricities, a preacher's sermon on a single word, a hunter's talk of gobblers.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Vernon, Florida (1981)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Errol Morris returned to Vernon, Florida, in 1980 to make the "Nub City" documentary; after further threats from residents, including someone trying to hit his cinematographer with a truck, he abandoned the angle and instead made a film about the town's eccentricities.
- The project began after Errol Morris read about Vernon, Florida residents' habit of collecting insurance money after losing limbs in accidents; with financial help from filmmaker Werner Herzog, he spent most of a year in the town, where he was met with hostility and a death threat.
