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Douglas Bruce,
Douglas Bruce,
Daniel Schacter,
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:
Rupert Murray,
Rupert Murray
see all cast/crew...
: 
: Wellspring Media
: Documentary, Biographies
: 88 min.
: English
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Douglas Bruce was a British expatriate living in New York City who in the early morning hours of July 3, 2003, found himself on a subway train heading toward Coney Island, with no memory of who he was, where he lived, or how he ended up on the subway. Bruce ended up asking a policeman for help, and was checked into the psychiatric ward at Coney Island Hospital. As doctors struggled to find out what had happened to him, he was admitted simply as "unknown white male." In time, a phone number in Bruce's wallet led doctors to a friend who identified him, but he himself still had absolutely no memory of his past. Rupert Murray was an old friend of Bruce's who heard about his condition and came to visit him with camera in tow and a stack of old home movies to reintroduce Bruce to his past. However, when he arrived in New York, Murray saw an old friend, but found a courteous but wary stranger looking back, and found that the "new" Douglas Bruce was in many ways a different man than the old Bruce. Murray followed Bruce as he struggled to relearn his own life, understand the history he could no longer recall, and grew into a new person with a new personality, and Unknown White Male is a documentary assembled from Murray's footage of both the new and old Dougs. Unknown White Male received its North American premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Identity and Memory, Loss and Gain
by talltale
September 16, 2006 - 3:49 PM PDT
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| A humdinger of a documentary even if, as some claim, it's somehow phony, UNKNOWN WHITE MALE offers us a subject and situation so fecund with possibilities that I should imagine any viewer who enjoys speculating and philosophizing about life and its quirks will embrace it. Real or fiction, either way it fascinates. The main character appears to completely lose his memory around the age of 30 and so must discover who he is (or might learn to be) from scratch. Except it's not from scratch, as he's a fully functioning adult blessed with good looks and a sizeable savings account. In a sense, he's like child equipped with adult skills who sets about learning the whole world. For anyone who has ever imagined starting over--REALLY starting over--this becomes a one-of-a-kind amazing "adventure." Filmed by the subject's best friend (whose technique could stand some upgrading), the movie starts out pretty rough but this matters less and less the more we get to know this white male--before and after his presumed memory loss. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.23)
13 Votes
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