A Cut Above: The Legend of Larry Roberts

Kentucky filmmaker Michael Crisp captures a unique slice of rural American life in this portrait of Larry Roberts, a forklift operator from Georgetown, KY, whose claim to fame was his amazing ability to chop down tobacco plants really, really fast. Starting in his teens, Roberts trained to be the fastest chopper ever, even—during one memorable occasion captured by a local television station—beating a newfangled tobacco-harvesting machine. The visuals make clear that this is backbreaking work: wielding a hatchet, Roberts slices an 8-foot stalk in one fluid motion, impales the big-leaved plant on a steel spike to be picked up by other workers, and then moves directly to the next one. His all-time record: 2,358 plants in 8.5 grueling hours. Roberts died tragically and early in 1986, so Crisp relies on vintage TV footage and interviews with surviving family and friends, telling the story in a straightforward way that lets the man's underlying sweetness shine through. DVD extras include bonus home movies of Roberts (at the piano, singing “God Never Fails” as we see a montage of family photos). A Cut Above offers no overt message, except that someone can be happy with a simple life and a skill to be proud of—and that's an insight worth noting. Highly recommended. Aud: P. (F. Gardner)