Review of Niagara Falls (2006) by Robert B — 09 Jun 2014

Niagara Falls (Diane Garey and Lawrence R. Hott, 2006).

Niagara Falls has a copyright date of 2006, and was produced jointly by PBS and the Niagara Tourism Commission (on both sides of the divide). The only reason I have to doubt the first part of that is that according to IMDB, the film was nominated in the Best Documentary category at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1985. That would make a little more sense given the criticisms to follow, but it still seems too recent; for a PBS production, this feels like early seventies, maybe 1975 at the latest, when they were still trying to figure out how to do that whole documentary thing. Garey and Hott produced something that feels for all the world like a no-budget tourism video, highlighting the stock "quirky" characters in interviews (along with, thankfully, a few folks with better heads on their shoulders), inked cardboard cutouts over scenery shots, etc.

One of the true treasures of Netflix's DVD program, and one of the greatest shortcomings of the streaming catalog since its inception, is the inclusion of weird little things like this in the former and the complete lack of same in the latter (you'll never see something like World Cup in Africa: Who Really Wins? streaming unless something fundamental changes; it is in the DVD catalog, on the other hand, and has been for years). As far as I'm concerned, the more ridiculous, the better. There are those who will think this is absolutely wonderful (my mother in law is one of them, almost certainly), and I am concerned that if Netflix abandons the DVD service, these things will lose the only real outlet they have for getting to the public. If this is up your alley, and you're a subscriber to Netflix's DVD mailing program, give it a go. Otherwise, you can give it a miss. **.