Libby, Montana offers a compelling argument for the use of more descriptive titles or subtitles in films. What's this film about? It's certainly not revealed by the cryptic title; nor is there a descriptive blurb on the back of the DVD case. In fact, it's not particularly clear even once you start watching the film, but for the sake of curious viewers, I'll let you in on the secret: Libby, Montana is a documentary about the way that the residents of the titular town suffered from the mismanagement and gross misconduct of the mining company that was for many years an important employer in the town. Without being informed of the health risks involved, residents labored with minimal protection in the asbestos-laden mines, with even their homes becoming infiltrated by the deadly dust; years later, they began an uphill battle to hold someone accountable and to reclaim their town.

As the bare summary suggests, there's a compelling true story at the core of Libby, Montana, with some very relevant points to make about the human costs that can mount up when big business is left to make a profit without supervision. It's also shown how much an effect politics can really have on the ordinary person, as the residents' tentative success in getting help is jeopardized by President Bush's cuts in the budget of the EPA.

But in the end, that story, interesting as it might be in theory, never really blossoms in Libby, Montana. The slow-paced, two-hour film plays as though it's intended for an audience who's already familiar with all the issues involved; there's really no effort to actually get the viewer interested in the material. The overly straightforward structure doesn't help matters at all, as we start out with a lengthy section presenting the town's history before we even learn about the issues with the mine.

Libby, Montana takes the approach of presenting its material without an overall narrator; the film's story is told entirely through the words of the interview subjects, along with informational clips from various news sources and filmed group meetings. Some documentaries can make this work, but not this one. For one thing, it's never clear where the film is going, or what the significance is of some of the footage; for another, the lack of a narrator's ability to summarize means that many of the key points are made in a drawn-out manner through repeated interviews.

The DVD

Video

Libby, Montana is made up of segments from a variety of video sources: home movies, old educational films, and television broadcasts, as well as footage filmed specifically for the documentary. With that in mind, the image quality for this film is adequate; while the picture is often soft and blurry, or showing signs of wear, it's a problem of the original source material. Overall, the film is watchable, but it's true that the lackluster image quality – no matter the reason for it – does make it less visually compelling.

The film is presented in what appears to be its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio

As with the image quality, the audio quality varies from scene to scene depending on the quality of the original recordings. Some of the interview segments are nicely clear, while others are more muffled; generally the 2.0 stereo track is clean-sounding, but some background noise does interfere at times. While it's not really a problem with the soundtrack, I did find that the theme music started to grate after a while, since the "dramatic" musical cues just sounded annoying.

Extras

There are no special features on this ultra-bare-bones release (although at least it has chapters). The main menu looks like it came directly from a DVD-burning program, but it does function just fine.

Final thoughts

Libby, Montana has some good points to make, and viewers who come to the film already interested in the subject matter will likely find it to be worthwhile viewing. The film doesn't pass muster as a general-interest documentary, however, no matter how relevant its topic; it's just too long and too loosely organized to effectively connect with the audience. I'll suggest it as a rental if you're interested in the topic.