Winnebago Man (Wednesday, July 7, 2010) (69)

Winnebago Man is a documentary about the search for a man who is in what is apparently one of the most notorious viral videos ever made - the so-called Winnebago Man or Angriest Man in the World. Director Ben Steinbauer introduces us to the video and shows us how ever since it was made in 1989, it has been a favorite source of hilarious laughs for two decades of fans. Long before YouTube, this video moved across the country and around the world by people copying their VHS recordings (with the picture quality deteriorating with each new generation of tapes).

Steinbauer sets out to find the Winnebago man, Jack Rebney. With help from a private investigator, he tracks him down and they agree to meet for a talk. At first, Rebney is happy and friendly, suggesting that he was having a bad time back then, but his view is very different now. But this happiness does not last for long as Steinbauer soon gets a bunch more calls and letters from Rebney saying he would like to use Steinbauer's film to get his anger over the present political situation out to the world.

It turns out that Rebney is still as foul-mouthed and out-spoken as he was on the Winnebago videos. His anger might be directed more toward Dick Cheney these days, but he is generally angry at everything and more than happy to drop a few "fucks" into every sentence.

Steinbauer and Rebney then work on a way to help get his opinions out and help capitalize on his notoriety. They argue back and forth about small stuff and big stuff, about the documentary itself and Rebney's ideas of where he fits into the world.

There is no question that this is a funny and sweet documentary, it just is a bit thin, I think, in terms of its impact and value. I had never actually seen or heard of the Winnebago Man before this (even considering myself above average in the cultural literacy department, I guess I missed that day of YouTube 101) and I'm not sure tracking down this guy means all that much to me. So what - he's a crotchety old man... big whoop.

This is a lovely little character study by Steinbauer, but it doesn't do anything more than just show an old man with a bad mouth. The third act of the film seems to be a bit useless, which makes me thing that this would have been a much better 60-minute doc short, rather than a feature.

On top of all of this, it is a bit strange the way the film is presented. The only reason Rebney comes back to Steinbauer to make more of the movie is to get his opinions out into the world about how he thinks Dick Cheney is a monster. After putting this idea out there, Steinbauer doesn't really let Rebney speak about his political feelings. This adds a second level to the exploitation of Rebney that I see in the film. We basically are laughing at the guy for 90 minutes and we never really find much sense in his anger (we all get angry - but why does this guy get so very ridiculously upset by dumb shit?). That we also don't see the one thing that was the condition for him doing the movie is rather upsetting to me.

This is a funny movie and generally an entertaining one - but I'm not sure it should be a feature-length project. It shows us a weird guy and shows him acting bizarrely, but that's about it. Big whoop.

Stars: 2 of 4