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One of the major plusses of this movie is the way the set design and cinematography contributes to the story. In one key scene shot inside a cabin, the crude conditions are clearly shown by the daylight winking through the walls. The plight of the characters' living conditions is certainly obvious in the story, but that cabin told the rest of the story. In another scene, several people are dancing outdoors and the camera is positioned so that the viewer seems to be standing in the crowd. The scene develops as all but two of the characters dance and the movement of the camera around the dancers to a high angle shot from the trees stretches and isolates the scene so that the dancers are shown to be some distance from the two non-dancers. This shot establishes not so much a rift between the characters, but a separation.

This film is very similar to Donald Davidson's novel, The Big Ballad Jamboree (University Press of Mississippi), and I strongly recommend both the movie and the book to everyone wanting to enjoy the richness of true "hillbilly" life and music.


Why had I never heard of this?!   January 23, 2005
 32 out of 33 found this review helpful

I rented this movie from Netflix because I was in the mood for something different...when it came in the mail, I read the synopsis and wondered what I'd been on. When my husband and I watched it, though, we were both enchanted. The movie itself is extremely well done, with excellent characters and a good story. The music...well, I'd never encountered this kind of music before, and when I first heard it, I wasn't impressed. But it grew on me quickly, and it's powerful stuff! SONGCATCHER is an awesome film more people need to see.

Note to the reviewer who was worried about a misinterpretation of "O Death:" as a first time watcher (and listener: I've never heard the song before), my impression of the song matched yours. I didn't notice the movie slanting its meaning.


If you like folk music...   June 3, 2001
 17 out of 22 found this review helpful

Songcatcher is directed by Maggie Greenwald and stars JAnet McTeer and Aidan Quinn. It tells the story of a musicologist (McTeer) who goes to record the Scottish and Irish folksongs that the locals have preserved for generations. But she soon finds herself getting involved in other ways, including helping them with their struggles with the coal mining companies, and the friend she finds in a local musician (Quinn).

I liked the actors, especially Janet McTeer who gives a very believable performance. I always believed that Aidan Quinn is one of the most underrated performers of our time. He also does a solid job here.

Overall, it's the music that sells here. If you like folk music you might wanna see it. It may not be as interesting as that for others who don't like it.


See for the music, not the story.   November 21, 2001
 17 out of 28 found this review helpful

And unless you are a true fan of mountain music, rent before buying. Though I'm not an expert or particular fan, even I could tell that it is rich and unique music, and deserves a better setting than this cliched and sometimes anachronistic movie, which often felt like a product of Screenwriting 101.

There are so many problems with the story I hardly know where to start. Perhaps the romance between Mcteer's flatland academic, and Quinn's mountain man. This has been done so many times...some of their exchanges were so stereotyped they made me groan. For example, city woman Lily (McTeer) attends her first bloody, violent childbirth. Predictably, she flings at Quinn's character: "You have no idea what that woman has just been through." Just as predictably, he responds with a story that shows, yes, he does know; and which makes her, of course, sound unbearably self-righteous.

Also predictably, they go in an instant from sparring to kissing. Admittedly, the transition was not handled the way I expected. Though who didn't know, the instant Tom's Granny tells Lily (McTeer) how to escape a panther, and she laughs at the idea, that she is inevitably going to end up in a scene doing just exactly what she did?

The one cliche avoided was that this was not used to humiliate her by, for example, having her emerge from the woods in front of a crowd of people. Probably this is the advantage of a woman director.

Aidan Quinn's performance kept me awake, however, even when he was confined by stereotype. I found it more difficult to warm to McTeer. I know she was meant to be stiff to show contrast with the mountain people, and I know a certain amount of stiffness is true to the early 20th century period. However, it was a bit too much for my taste, though that may be the director's fault, not hers.

I also enjoyed Jane Adam's performance. I wasn't put off by the lesbian storyline as some viewers were. It was at least an interesting twist to the "prim schoolmarm" character.

However, the confrontation between Lily and her sister is keyed more for modern ears, and is shallowly characterized. Schoolteachers of that era were held to such high moral standards that Lily's shock and anger wouldn't make her a bigot. It would have been shocking if she'd found her unmarried sister in bed with a man. I also felt Elna (Adams) would have shown more confusion and surprise at what she had discovered about herself. Her acceptance is very modern.

The mistake with this storyline, however, was carrying it too far. It took over the story, and the final (tolerant) outcome wasn't believable. Again, keyed a little too much toward modern sensibilities.

The biggest mistake, however, was in failing to address the real issue: How is Lily going to repay these people for the incredible gift she is getting from them? How to record their music without (as Tom puts it) exploiting them? The people are so poor they are selling their land for a fraction of its value. The real story, then, should have been about Lily finding a way to resolve this dilemma, to pay them for their music, so they can keep their land and live in their old ways.

Instead she virtually abandons her work, at the very moment she can count on unlimited funding, recognition, and an eager assistant. She goes to the city to record mountain music (which doesn't quite make sense), because she thinks there will be a market for it. But wouldn't there be a better market if she continued her work and published her book, making the mountain people famous? Tom accompanies her, which contradicts everything about his character, who loves the mountain ways.

About the music: A mostly successful effort was made to integrate songs in a natural or dramatic way into the story. I still remember the song about death--a showstopper. It was a shame to have Taj Mahal, the black banjo player, in for only one scene, though. Finally, Iris DeMent's "Barbara Allen" over the credits was haunting, beautiful, and worth the price of admission.