Crawford, a documentary about (and named for) George W. Bush’s favorite cynically selected folksy backdrop...I mean, uh, vacation spot...was first reviewed here by Scott Von Doviak (at SXSW) and will screen this weekend at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.
The film profiles the titular town and its residents from just before the future commander-in-chief’s arrival (he bought his ranch there around the time of the 2000 presidential campaign, back when he was governor of the state) through the Decider's recent reversals of fortune. The film was a little preachy-to-the-choir but interesting and taught me the following things about Crawford...
1. The town is small, but not really as dusty and rural as the president would have you believe. In fact, in one of the doc’s best moments, the filmmakers reveal how dozens of different TV news crews use the same farm equipment as a backdrop for their reports from the "Western White House," while carefully framing out the modern high school adjacent to the folksy rustic hardware.
2. There’s a pretty wide, purple-state range of opinions in the heart of "Bush country"...and, in fact, a “peace house” was sitting smack dab in the middle of Crawford even before Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey crowd showed up.
3. Once the novelty wears off, having your small town crammed with reporters, protesters and secret service agents gets old pretty quick.
