The Legend of Bigfoot (1976)

directed by Harry Winer
USA
76 minutes
2.5 stars out of 5
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Apparently there are two movies with basically this same title that came out in 1976. This review is for the one about a guy named Ivan Marx who is either a hokey American farmer or somebody who wants very much to convince us he's a hokey American farmer, who happens to also be a Bigfoot expert. Or possibly he wants very much to convince us that he's a Bigfoot expert.

That's the thing about this mockumentary: you can't tell how much Marx himself believes. Does he allege that everything depicted in this film is one hundred percent the truth, and that no Bigfoot suits were used? Does he allege that everything depicted in this film is one hundred percent the truth, but staged with recreations and practical effects? Does he believe none of it and is trying to make a buck or gain notoriety? His narration is so self-righteous that it's difficult to see him as genuine, and his attempts to force folksiness and a vision of quintessential Americana make him sound like he's campaigning for something. Maybe you can be elected Bigfoot-catcher the way you can be elected dogcatcher.

The emphasis in this film is on Bigfoot as an undiscovered species, and in talking this out to his viewers Ivan Marx manages to alienate actual indigenous people. His idea of indigeneity is obviously that it's something of the past: he regales "his" America as land that is farmed and controlled (by white men) while speaking of "wild men walking out of the mountains of California" as if people uncontacted or unbothered by colonization are some kind of rare phenomenon as opposed to the original inhabitants of the land. As if California belongs to someone else, as if it's somewhere that you "walk out of" when you're indigenous. Someone else's land that you're just an inhabitant of.

I have half a mind to write an entire rebuttal paper to some guy's wacky Bigfoot fantasy from the 70s. I know it's not that deep, but Bigfoot movies run rampant with anti-Native racism. I was almost glad the narrator's dignity spared us having to watch him beat a drum and do a chant. I could truly go on and on about how pompous he is underneath his facade of being just a regular ol' guy (who never shuts up about what an outstanding, excellent tracker he apparently is) but I don't think this film or whatever it is is worth it.