You take the gold, I'll take the forest

I spent last evening curled up on one of the benches at the Red Vic watching Monumental, a film about David Brower and his lifelong battle to keep American wilderness alive and stop development in crucial areas.

The Red Vic's description of the film leaves out the fact that about half the film consists of Brower's own home movies, dating back to the mid-1930s. A few minutes into the film, you see Brower and a few friends scaling New Mexico's Shiprock in full color, in 1938-vintage 16mm. (They're all wearing sneakers!) Later, you see Brower's film of Glen Canyon before it was dammed. Wow.

I understand that Monumental's director is not yet 30 years old. The budget is low, and some of the interview sequences are awkward. Still, the commentary from Brower's friends and rivals is enlightening, though not nearly as compelling as Brower's own footage.

Curiously, the film also leaves out a few key pieces of information, the biggest being that Brower actually had enough votes to block the Glen Canyon Dam's congressional approval but mistakenly capitulated anyway. And although longtime Bureau of Reclamation chief and dam advocate Floyd Dominy is in the film (referred to as a "clown" by one Brower colleague), Monumental makes no mention of the fact that Brower and Dominy once famously ran the Colorado's rapids in the Grand Canyon together -- with a couple of bottles of Jim Beam and some beers, no less.

I'm still deciding whether the indie-rock soundtrack, featuring Beachwood Sparks, the Fruit Bats and Yo La Tengo, really worked for me. I mean, nothing says "rugged outdoorsman" like a band of junkies from L.A. (or Ira Kaplan, for that matter), but the instrumentals in particular seemed like they were chosen wisely enough.


Songs now playing: Martha & The Vandellas' "(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave," then Van Morrison's "Caravan," both of which get five stars in my iTunes