Grounded

Pennsylvania brothers Terry and Jimmy Dougherty claim to have been the most prolific marijuana smugglers in recent American history, bringing tons of narcotics from Columbia into the Eastern U.S. during the 1970s, mostly by plane. Both are also natural-born storytellers (Terry especially; no wonder he now makes a legitimate living as a "salesman"), which is quickly evident here as the pair detail their escapades in the no-regrets manner of yesteryear's moonshiners or Prohibition rum-runners. Growing up largely unsupervised due to their mother's death and their father's long work hours as a private pilot, the Doughertys turned into pot-smuggling middlemen in the dope racket. After hauling carloads north from Florida, the pair made the next logical evolution, with Terry earning a pilot's license, mastering the Fort Lauderdale-to-Columbia air route, and making drops, mostly at willing private airstrips or fields in the dead of night in an Air Force surplus DC-4. Filmmaker Sean Patrick Crowell also interviews lawmen and looks at the elaborate undercover trap in Alabama that finally ended the brothers' contraband career. Little rancor is evident on either side, and for the Doughertys the point seemed to be more the thrill of flying outside the law than money or addiction (the politics of marijuana and legalization never come up, but those who knew of the brothers' occupation considered it no stigma). Although heavy on talking heads, Grounded is an engaging documentary. Recommended. Aud: P. (C. Cassady)