Sweetgrass is the real-life story of the last
sheep drive up from Big Timber Ranch into the Beartooth Mountains, in Montana,
in the summer of 2003. If the thought of a movie about a sheep drive is less
than thrilling to you, and you may even have counted sheep in order to fall
asleep, bear with me for a moment, because this is a wonderful movie. First
there are the sheep, many of them. They are surprisingly individualistic and
intelligent in their own sheepish way. Then there are the cowboy shepherds, a
philosophical and humorous lot. Then
there is the scenery, which is indescribably beautiful–almost unearthly. And then there is the
story itself, which pulls you in. The pace of the movie is almost meditative,
as the year unfolds, from winter to spring with its lambing, to summer, when
the sheep make the journey up into the mountains for six weeks to eat the sweet
grass, and then as the grass turns brown, there is the journey back. The cast
of characters includes dogs, as well, including the big white Great Pyrenees
guard dogs, who think they are sheep, too, and then there are the grizzly
bears and curious mountain goats. There
is no background music, and no narrative, and the very quiet of the movie is
quite soothing, like wind blowing through soft grass, though be forewarned that
the shepherds like to cuss, and do so imaginatively. You may begin watching
Sweetgrass wondering how anyone in their right mind could spend so much time in
the mountains with sheep, but end wondering how you can spend much of your life
at a desk with a computer. There is a jolt at the end of the movie, and I don’t
think I’m giving anything away to say the sheep are sent on their way to the
stockyards, though I experienced a shock when I realized what was happening.
The miracle of this movie is how riveting the story is, even though there is
little dialogue and no spoken narrative. If you have the time, the narrated version of the movie is informative and worth watching.
