Unknown White Male (2005)
Runtime: 88 mins
Theatrical Release: Feb 24, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Sometime between 8pm on July 1st and 7am on July 3rd, 2003, Doug Bruce lost himself. That morning, riding alone on a New York subway headed towards Coney Island, he could not remember his name, where he worked, who his friends were, how much money he had in his bank account. He was without his... Sometime between 8pm on July 1st and 7am on July 3rd, 2003, Doug Bruce lost himself. That morning, riding alone on a New York subway headed towards Coney Island, he could not remember his name, where he worked, who his friends were, how much money he had in his bank account. He was without his identity. UNKNOWN WHITE MALE is the true story of how Bruce, a successful former stockbroker, struggles to learn who he was and who he will become. The documentary, produced, directed and edited by Bruce's longtime friend, Rupert Murray, chronicles this profound journey. Two MRIs, two CAT scans, 26 blood tests and an army of psychiatrists cannot properly diagnose what turns out to be the rarest and most startling form of memory loss: retrograde amnesia. Was Bruce the victim of a robbery resulting in a slight head injury or the effects of a small cyst on his pituitary gland? Or perhaps is Bruce subconsciously reacting to the death of his mother a few years before? It is a testament to Murray's smooth but honest narrative that the film asks all the right questions even if many of the answers remain elusive. Murray empathetically walks us through Bruce's quest. He assembles dozens of childhood photos, decades of home videos, extensive interviews with family members, friends, ex-girlfriends, psychiatrists, neurologists, and philosophers—and the touching participation of Bruce himself. We watch how he reconstructs a life for himself by retaining what he admires about his former self while casting off what—and whom—he dislikes. It is at once a nightmare and a dream come true: a chance at rebirth. We watch Bruce, now 35, play catch up with popular culture and current events, experience the serenity of a snowfall and the bombast of fireworks. And we watch him reconstruct relationships with family members he does not recognize and fall in love with a woman who knows only the post-accident version of her lover. Paraphrasing John Locke, one of the film's interviewees observes that Bruce is certainly the same man but questionably the same person. Fictional narrative film has long been fascinated by stories of memory loss -- from Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND through to more recent releases such as MEMENTO, MULHOLLAND DRIVE and ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND. Here is a story almost too real for fiction, told with a striking visual style and tremendous heart. --© Wellspring Media [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
DVD Info
Release:
Sep 5, 2006
DVD Features:
- Keep Case
- Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
- (unspecified) - English
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
Doug's story is endlessly fascinating, the sort of thing that leaves you thinking about it for days.
That the fugue-state victim is movie-star handsome doesn't hurt the appeal of the film at all, both from a commercial and empathetic viewpoint.
Unknown White Male picks up where films like Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind leave off, examining the larger implications and aftereffects of memory loss instead of primarily employing it (however effectively) as a plot device.
It doesn’t help Bruce’s cause that he is seen in archive footage to have been a smug, arrogant fellow; it’s tempting to imagine that his memory has abandoned him in exasperation. A case of amnesia as overdue self-discovery, perhaps?
Given that this retrograde memory loss has cleansed Doug Bruce’s perceptions and made him an altogether more open and emotional person, Unknown White Male suggests that amnesia could be the ultimate chicken soup for the soul.
Amnesia has been a staple of movies from time immemorial, but few, if any, of them have cut to the bone the way this modest documentary does.
In the end, it fails to offer any insight into the philosophical question it poses.
A fascinating documentary, which traces the process by which its subject learns about his 'old' self, whilst adjusting to an invigorated everyday existence.
Paints an absorbing, even haunting picture of one life wiped away and a new one begun.
Whether it's a real case captured by an incurious filmmaker, a hoax perpetrated on an incurious filmmaker or an audacious bit of Blair Witch fakery, the movie gets you thinking about the nature of identity and the power of memory.
Even if Rupert Murray's film does turn out to be a hoax, there's no denying the ingenuity involved in its making.
When it's at its best, Unknown White Male can be stirring and thought-provoking, but too often it's lax and complacent when what's called for is something more probing and investigative.
Unknown White Male has moments you won't forget, appropriate praise for a documentary about amnesia.
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