Unhappy Little Trees: The Dark Legacy of Bob Ross
Bob Ross, the tv painter identified for his dandelion-fuzz hair and pizza-delivery strategy to knocking out a panorama (half-hour or much less!) continues to be beloved, 26 years after his demise, for the soothing approach he dabbed what he known as “pleased little” bushes and clouds onto his canvases. A brand new Netflix documentary about him—with an ominous title and much more disturbing trailer—has roused alarm among the many Ross devoted that it’ll expose some horrific habits that endlessly ruins these fond recollections.
However whereas Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed does reveal some bizarre human flaws of the Pleasure of Portray star, Ross himself emerges largely intact because the light, kindhearted soul his admirers already know. The troubling components occurred principally after he was gone.
The documentary, which hits Netflix on Wednesday, chronicles the bitter dispute that erupted between Ross’s son, mates, and enterprise companions after Ross died from most cancers at 52. Ross’s decade-plus of PBS reveals had already made him a guru to numerous viewers who adopted his result in turn into beginner artists, and the sale of pop-culture merch, in addition to portray merchandise bearing his identify and distinctive likeness, proceed to generate a fortune right now. Additionally enduring since his demise: authorized wrangling, accusations of dangerous habits and disrespect, and anger and resentment between the surviving events.
The movie gained’t dramatically change the way in which you see Bob Ross. Nevertheless it would possibly make you are feeling conflicted about that Bob Ross crock pot.
“At any time when I inform mates or colleagues that I’m making a doc about Bob Ross, as a result of they know my work and so they comprehend it’s normally fairly darkish, they are saying, ‘Oh, my God, you’re going to damage Bob Ross for me.’ I guarantee them that quite the opposite, I believe you’ll depart the film maybe loving him much more,” says director Joshua Rofé, whose earlier docs embody the latest true-crime collection Sasquatch and 2019’s Lorena, about Lorena Bobbitt. “The extra I realized about him, the extra empathy I discovered myself having for this man, who I solely knew from the present.”
The trailer itself is much less reassuring. It options solely a grey scale picture of Ross whereas creepy music tinkles within the background. The smiling painter then fades away because the voice of Steve Ross, Bob’s son, says, “I’ve been eager to get this story out for all these years…”
The rationale the trailer doesn’t characteristic any footage, Rofé says, is as a result of fair-use legal guidelines permit him to make use of items of The Pleasure of Portray within the film, however not within the promoting. (It’s not as a result of there may be footage of Ross doing one thing unspeakable.)
Nonetheless, the trailer provoked instantaneous misery vibes within the week earlier than the film’s debut:
However Bob Ross didn’t damage anybody. His absence did. The film explores the query of who ought to have management over his legacy. In some methods, that has already been resolved; in different methods, it would by no means be over.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/08/bob-ross-documentary-netflix | Sad Little Timber: The Darkish Legacy of Bob Ross
