The core of the story couldn't be simpler. The scenario is rural Kentucky during the Depression. Charlie, a pre-teen boy is interested in bluegrass and learning the art of fiddling from his elders and neighbors in his spare time. The family moves to Ohio where there are job opportunities for Charlie's father. In another time frame, Charlie is a grown man in Ohio and longs for returning to his roots and his birthplace in Kentucky. As for the title, "mountain minor" is a way to tune the banjo used in bluegrass.
Director Dale Farmer has woven a fascinating film from this story casting the main roles with professional bluegrass musicians like banjoist and fiddler Dan Gellert, singer and banjoist Elizabeth LaPrelle and singer and guitarist Ma Crow. As the director (a musician himself) remarked, "musicians would be better actors than actors make musicians" The idea works like a charm. The professionals make beautiful music, do their acting chores flawlessly and the wittily scripted dialogues touch upon the magic of folk music and its relations with one's family, life and roots. The ending is an improvised, exhilarating family hoedown. I enjoyed every minute of this movie.
Plot summary
In the 1920s-1950s, millions of Appalachians left their homes in the mountains and migrated to urban Midwestern centers in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. The Mountain Minor is the story of a life-worn Charlie Abner, a generation later, as he struggles with leaving his present life and family in Ohio to return to the Kentucky mountain home and musical heritage that once defined him. The story is partially told in flashbacks to depression era Eastern Kentucky, when Charlie's parents, Oza and Vestal Abner, face the difficult decision to leave the way of life they know and move to Ohio for employment and better opportunities. The Mountain Minor is unique in that all of its principal actors are traditional musicians - such as Smithsonian Folkways artist Elizabeth LaPrelle and acclaimed banjoist and fiddler Dan Gellert - and they perform all of the music in the film. Deeply infused with the traditional Appalachian musical genres of Old Time and Bluegrass, The Mountain Minor tells an overlooked story about the people and culture behind the resurgence of American Roots Music today and highlights artful responses to the difficult circumstances of human migration.
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Kentucky bluegrass
A quiet movie so you can notice the small things
As others have said, no pyrotechnics, car chases, blood, sex scenes, etc. I loved watching the movie. I'm on west coast and we don't have fireflies (lightning bugs) and memorable scene with Charlie playing at dusk and there were fireflies in the background. Not even Disney or Marvel has that. From the bare feet to the way everyone treated each other, dealt with death of a child, literate mom, illiterate dad, etc. . . All of it from a simpler / harder time. IMO, you have to be a grown up to appreciate the movie.
Awesome Music
If you like the mountain music you'll likely love the movie... if not... you probably will critique the acting and plot pretty harshly. In my humble opinion the acting is pretty good for having no big Hollywood names in it. I happen to like the music so I gave it a ten. I don't know how factually correct it is for the depression era mountain people but I think it's entertaining. I kind of like the way it moves back and forth in time with all of the actors being very gifted musicians as both younger kids and older adults.