Customer Reviews

Wisconsin Death Trip

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

It is the late 1890's in the town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin and everything is going to hell. There is a diphtheria epidemic that wipes out the children and a long lasting economic depression. Soon after, many of the residents lost their grip on reality and commit suicide and murder in some bizarre and startling ways. James Marsh's documentary pulls the viewer in with these macabre tales and underscores them with color reenactments of some of the events. These reenactments, however, tend to take away from the mysteriousness of the story and keep reminding us that we are over a century away from this event and this is, after all, just a documentary. If only Marsh had kept it all black and white and interspersed more of the real photographs of the townspeople (Black River Falls had its own resident photographer), then it might seem more eerie. It also raises the question that this might not have been that unusual during this period of time in rural America. Black River Falls just happened to have well documented these events. Still, as a reflection of a time when life was hard and times were tough, Marsh succeeds in finding some truly strange occurrences. It's almost as if a curse was placed on this one small town. Iam Holm narrates and his foreboding voice is perfect.

The most striking features of this little dark gem of a film that make it emminently watchable are the beautifully composed black and white shots, often rendered through unusual angles, and the simply elegant soundtrack composed of classical tracks mixed in with modern classical/folk. I found myself being pulled back in time as the film unravelled its stories and slowly steamrolled me over by the sheer volume of misery experienced by the northern immigrant communities. It makes one wonder how much of the small town, everyday life variety of American history is glossed over and forgotten about. Sadly, I think you could have made this film about any number of areas of the US and the human experience between 1850 and 1950 and you would find similar tales of suffering, strife and moral collapse. This should be required watching for those who still believe that there ever was a such thing as the American dream.

This great film will stamp an indelible image into your psyche. I saw this at a cinema last year and it has stayed in my mind ever since. A more hauntingly beautiful film has not bettered this faux documentary about the lives our ancestors lived...and how things really have not changed.

I've never written an Amazon review before, but was just too tempted when I saw the very poor reviews this film has received on this site. I am an American living in England, and I bought this DVD here in the UK. It has fairly good reviews here in England, but I was surprised by the number of narrow minded, prissy reviews it has on the Amazon US site.
I found this film moving, sad, funny, and beautiful to watch. It is extremely well-filmed, and unlike other reviewers here, I think it is also very sensitive considering the subject matter.
This film is a must for REAL history buffs (who aren't afraid to see reality) and for all lovers of....just well-filmed films.
And as for other reviewers pooh-poohing the fact that this has photos of *gasp* DEAD PEOPLE - grow up and get some perspective on this time in history, or don't watch! Post mortem photographs were as common as going to Olan Mills for the family portrait is today - any true history buff will already know this - and those photographs were not so much *private family photographs* as they were on display, proudly, above mantelpieces, for all to see. Post mortem photography was de rigeur in a society where death was much more open and most people died at home.
All in all, I highly recommend this film. No, it's not for everyone, but it is an excellent film for some.

Wisconsin Death Trip is a journey back to the late 19th century into the town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, where poverty, hunger, and a grueling winter are assaulting the inhabitants. The population of the small town is mostly of immigrants from Norway and Germany and they are suffering to the point of madness where murder and bizarre behavior results from their anguish. This anguish is often blamed upon witchcraft, ghosts, and other evils as it brings many to the Mendota Asylum for the Insane. As the film unfolds it becomes an expedition through Wisconsin and the many macabre incidences that took place between 1890 and 1900. In the end, it offers some interesting insight to the state of Wisconsin and it offers a truly grisly, yet well done, cinematic experience.

In a fit of morbid fascination with "collective insanity" along with my love of history of nineteenth century small town America, I watched this "documentary." It was not at all as it was described.

This film is a collection of photos and reenactments of weird things that happened over a period of almost twenty years in a small portion of Wisconsin. And after each segment (about 15 minutes for each season, which the seasons did not make sense anyways because this film spanned several decades not a year in this town, causing some confusion, probably in an attempt to make this place look crazier than it was/is) a brightly modern color insert of how things are a century later makes the film even less interesting. Given the lack of organization and vision, I guess it would be difficult to characterize this film or explain it aptly, but every "description" I read is still vague or misleading.

The collection of photos and the stories told are interesting, but if you want more than a mere voyeuristic snippet of some of the more fiendish personalities of rural Americana this is not going to be good enough.

If this film was trying to say this county was crazy then, and is still crazy now, it made a pretty weak and incoherent argument. Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer are muttered during one of the color segments of Black River "today," and frankly I think that is quite a stretch. This area is not anything extraordinary when it comes to murder, insanity, or just plain rural weirdness. It could have been an interesting case study, but it was treated as a freak town that has never gotten better. Which begs the question, why does anyone still live there? If this is really a hotbed for insanity and moral/criminal corruption, shouldn't it be condemned and abandoned?

I think the book (which I have yet to get my hands on) would probably be better if you just want to see some of these photos and read the newspaper clippings. This was a pathetic attempt to draw loose and ridiculous conclusions and do it under the guise of "documentary" to give it some credibility. Do not waste your time.

I have seen Wisconsin Death Trip several times.
Some people are shocked by photos of the dead.
This is not really such an uncommon thing.
When I first heard about photos of the dead I did not
understand why anyone would want such a photo.
There are many reasons.

People who take photos of the dead are not being disrespectful.
Taking photographs of the dead is still a common practice in many societies and cultures. Such photographs are a proof that there was a funeral and that the person actually died. In some instances people want these photographs to send to family that is far away. Some people who are new to this country will take photos and videos of the funeral to send back to their relatives.
Photographs are also taken of people who are ill or in hospital, to send to distant family members for similar reasons.

I know of blind persons who use cameras to take photos that they themselves cannot see. A blind person takes photos as a kind of documentation and a witness to the reality of their experience. See the movie "Proof" with Hugo Weaving.

I just finished watching the eerily haunting documentary, "Wisconsin Death Trip." The documentary was recommended by my friend, Bob Leonard.

Set in the years 1890-1900, the movie is collected from an old newspaper that dates back to those years. Definitely not for children, the weak of stomach or people controlled by emotions, the stories culled from the newspaper accounts tell tales of murders, disease, adultery, many suicides and of a window smasher named Mary Sweeney. I will have to do more research on Mary Sweeney.

If you have about an hour and 15 minutes and you're in the mood for something that is more frightening than a ghost story (because this is true), you may want to sit down and watch it. If not you may just want to skip it.
I'll give it four out of five stars because it is edited so well and makes you feel like you're experiencing the same things that people were back near the turn of the century.

This film was absolutely incredible. I am a Social Work major and have been studying demographics, aging, death and dying. This film fits in so well with some of the course work I have had. People just don't realize this is how it really was and in many cases still is. This film in a thimble described drug addiction, mental illness, spousal abuse. child abuse, and disease. From my personal perspective - it made me understand a bit better the suffering of others and how we have gone nowhere in alleviating suffering.

Absolutely amazing!!

I have never read the book this documentary was inspired by but the subject matter of a real life town plagued by disaster and insanity near the turn of the last century sure sounded interesting. Unfortunately the movie is quite tedious with long drawn out shots and scenes that are so slow I once had to check the DVD player to see if I had paused it by mistake. I don't know much about Wisconsin but I can read a map and see that contrary to the impression the filmmakers try to make the weird events reported in this story took place throughout the state often well over a hundred miles from the town of Black River Falls which is the film's focus. And are the Wisconsin murders, suicides, premature deaths, commitments to "insane asylums" etc really even all that unusual for the time period or any time period? I can remember hearing local stories of equally tragic and unusual proportions from both of my grandmothers who lived their lives in rural Ohio and Maryland. Yet the filmmakers don't try to draw any conclusions about the universality of the stories but focus instead on perpetuating a viewpoint that the Black Rivers Falls area is cursed (by the Winnebago Indians perhaps?).

The reenactments of the stories reminded me of "features" local television news shows often come up with during "sweeps months" to boost their ratings. These historic reenactments come complete with spooky sound effects, chilling music and an ominous narrator who speaks in a sinister whisper when reading the circumstances of an inmate at the state's insane asylum. All of the historic scenes are shot in black and white but there is some color film used that shows modern small town Wisconsin. The portion of the documentary that shows these rather ordinary pleasant people (some in nursing homes) seems to be intent in showing the present day folks are as "unusual" as their forebears and this portion of the film is both condescending and offensive.