Take This Hammer - a documentary

December 01, 2008. I enjoyed viewing it very much. The video production quality is excellent throughout, not an easy thing to achieve when filming is done over a period of time with varied seasonal conditions.

The music, yours and others, was a joy and really kept the tone of the piece uplifting. It was fun to follow your progress preparing and building the wall.

I especially liked the scene where the butterfly came around and landed on your back when you were trying to pull the tree stump. The finished work is a generous offering of one man's pleasure in stacking stone.

November 30, 2008. 'Take This Hammer' is a delightful foray into Bob Gordon's world of stacking stones. I viewed his new DVD this week and thought it was a charming and entertaining piece of work.

The film progressed at an energetic almost breathless pace while maintaining a kind of folky laid back feeling. It humbly communicates his genuine fascination and love of dry stacking stone.

It was a pleasure to watch Bob's project(s) progress through the seasons over several years.

It seems apparent that Bob and his friends had as much fun making the movie as they had making the walls?

Bob builds wider walls than we do and spends less time worrying about whether individual stones wiggle, fit perfectly or stick out too much from the rest of the wall.

Where Bob lives in northern Virginia the stones are very old and crotchety. I have actually had the opportunity (if that's the right word?) to build with this challenging kind of stone building several dry stone walls not far from Bob in Rappahannock County. I described it to someone as like working with petrified lumps of oatmeal . The stones come in very awkward, un-geometric shapes.

The walls Bob builds and the way he has documented what he does is unpretentious and refreshing. This is not so much a How-To , but a ' Me Too' video . It's as if Bob has invited us to join in and share the fun, gaining nuggets of insight and enjoy refreshing pauses of contentment, while pursuing this crazy activity of stacking stone upon stone across the countryside.

I for one can't wait to get back out there walling again!

John Shaw-Rimmington, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
Canadian Dry Wall Association, http://www.dswa.ca

November 22, 2008. What I liked was that the film worked on multiple levels, on the surface as a how-to for a hobbyists's passion for earthworks, as an ode to rediscovering the sway of nature's primal elements, and ultimately as a guide for survivalists.

As one of the professionals observes, many of the walls featured in the documentary were used in the Civil War for defensive purposes. And these modern-day masons intend to make the walls rise again as bulwarks against overtaxing and overbearing government power.

The host and master stone wall builder notes sagely that the well-built wall - "as it settles in, it gets stronger, not weaker." Damn right. The builders rally around the stone wall as a "living thing" - Northern Virginia's answer to the Russian bear or the Chinese dragon. These hardy stock have banded together in a cosmopolitan militia - did I hear a slight German accent among one of the ardent followers? - which should serve as a model to other communities organizing across the country.

In these times, the well-documented rock theft in which the film's host repeatedly engages is obviously justified by a sense of martial urgency. [Note: All rocks are taken from Bob's own farmland, no rock theft in Take This Hammer] Take this hammer, and build this wall. Our futures depend on it.

I thouroughly enjoyed watching your documentary. What struck me most was the powerfully simplistic manner in which you provided insight into your artforms and welcomed (even challenged) me to view and step into your passion to experience a place you frequent to rejuvenate yourself.

The close up images of your hands alone told a story of your attachement to and love of your craft. From the battle scars of walls long since built to the fresh injuries adding its sanguine color to the wall in process, from the ants scurrying about your unperturbed hands to the turning and shaping of each stone, these images allowed me to not just simply "watch" you but in some uncanny way allowed me to experience why you love building walls.

So many documentaries are an uninterrupted and wearisome piecing together of some form of speech....distracting one away from the real message. The obvious lack of verbage and scripting was an artistic element of Authenticity for me. I've never known you to be a verbose man. You say what needs to be said ......the rest is in the Doing!

Although it was a documentary on building walls, the incorporation of great photography, family involvement and your passion for bluegrass fundamentally transformed a "Documentary" into a Legacy a Man: His Land, His Music, His Zen.

The film was beautiful; the music carried the concept and really added to the flavor of the story. Katie & Ned

Such an inspiring film and made with so much love and devotion. It took me back to my days on the family farm in Namibia, when I helped my dad with dosing sheep, castrating young bulls, erecting windmills, etc, etc. - and hunting of course. Permeating the whole work was that sense of real achievement that only comes to those that work with their hands and become one with the earth.. Niels

I look forward to seeing the dvd again. There are precious few “feel good” stories in today’s world; so the timing of this release could not be better. Bob

CONGRATULATIONS on your movie and concert debut! What a great evening, your movie is just great. Was fun to see how people reacted to it. Anita

We watched the movie over the weekend, The whole family loved it. It was very, very relaxing. It kind of puts you in a different world. Bill.

My niece and I just finished watching the DVD. Absolutely wonderful. Like the wall itself this is a lasting and delightful tribute to you and to your connection to such wonderful values. John.

I can't tell you how much we enjoyed your DVD. I so admire you for having the ability or grace to find the rhythm of a project of such magnitude and approaching it as an experience rather than a job to get done. Gayle.

I just looked at the trailer...... incredible!! You are very inspirational, dont ever stop. Allen

The trailer is marvelous, very energetic, charming and full of the kind of wisdom all dry stoner walling people know well. John, who was sitting beside me, kept nodding his head and saying, "Yup, he's absolutely right about that! Mary

Awesome movie clip....I have spent a lot of time repairing stone walls in NH. Unfortunately we don't have those rocks that split nicely.....that is one big difference between granite and sandstone/siltstone. Man your walls are beautiful!!! JME

Absolutely fantastic, on all fronts! From the photography, filming, music, and the “work and art” of building the walls, everything falls into place for the clip. John

I think there is something for guys like us who mostly work with our minds to get great enjoyment out of working with your hands and seeing a tangible product of your labor, how one person handles the day to day nonsense in a white collar world with a good workout on the rocks. David

Truly an amazing piece of work; both the actual walls and the film. Stone walls are a lost art and are a thing of beauty. Emma

I think people are so tired of the hype about how terrible things are and I find I can only take a few minutes of any of the talking heads, Fox news etc... you reach out to the natural positive soul of human beings!!!!! Thanks for sharing with me. mh

I think the trailer is utterly charming and emblematic of our beloved countryside. Gloria Rose