While the Bulgarian-born artist, Christo, was nursing along his project to build a Twenty-four-mile nylon fence in Sonoma County, the Maysles Brothers were on the spot to record it all on film. As in any Maysles movie, you shouldn't expect any brain-testing discussion of the issues. They know their movie is to be shown in art museums or on college campuses, and they are always willing to give the culture vultures a laugh at the expense of the common folk. A rancher, sounding off about Christo: "I'll bet he can't even paint a picture." A coffee-shop waitress, about the half-finished fence: "It's not pretty in the sense of pretty, but it's different and it's nifty." Sketchily covering the bureaucratic battles and the local yokels' reactions, the first half of the film is often unbearably smug. It seems less aloof when it's covering the actual construction of the fence. With the swarms of student laborers dressed in official yellow jerseys and with the artist's wife co-ordinating the operation from her radio command post, this project looks something like a small-scale, nonutilitarian version of the Great Wall of China or the Union Pacific Railroad. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd
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