Now normally, I got no truck with Errol Morris. Just the opposite, I'm one of his more ardent admirers. Thin Blue Line made me want to become a filmmaker. I've interviewed him and learned at his knee.
And when his Miller High Life commercial titled "SUV" started mocking a hapless La Forza, I was all for it--until he drove into the ditch with a retrograde slam of station wagons as unmanly.
Full of workbench calluses, high-and-tight haircuts, and potato salad, Morris's Miller commercials celebrate a beer-colored era of middle-American manhood that I was totally digging until the skirt-wearing wagon driver comment.
Now I can't help but think that Miller Time was also when when women knew their place and kept those kids outta your hair, a time when you could smack your family around when they had it coming, and they'd stay shut up. Those were the days, I guess. Now where's my beer, woman?
Watch "SUV" and a bunch of other commercials by Errol Morris for Miller High Life [errolmorris.com]
Here's the narration text for "SUV":
Leather seats.
Automatic transmission.
Nowadays, you'll hear people call this a truck.
Well, a man knows a station wagon when he sees one.
This car will only see off-road action if the driver backs over a flower bed.
If this vehicular masquerade represents the high life to which men are called, we should trade our trousers for skirts. Right now.
Holy crap, soldier. The Miller"Boat" spots is one of my all time favorites. I never knew it was Errol Morris at the wheel.
[see? that's how they get you. that ad is almost perfect. -ed.]
But then they hit you with "Broken Window" and the fruity soccer players go back to our Stella Artois.
I'm not a fan of SUVs or automatic transmissions but leave the station wagons alone! Obviously Mr. Morris hasn't seen the reviews for the new S6 Wagon yet... anything with a V10 engine is pretty manly if you ask me.