Barefoot: The Mark Baumer Story movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Barefoot: The Mark Baumer Story

RATING: Not rated

LENGTH: 1 hour, 27 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: A

IN A NUTSHELL:

In a word: Ouch! Barefoot! Mark Baumer was a writer, poet, and activist who decided to walk barefoot across America to bring awareness to Climate Change and other environmental issues. Whether or not you believe in global warming, you can’t deny Mark’s enthusiasm and passion for his cause and goal. The timing of this movie’s release is just as relevant as ever.

Lovingly edited from Baumer’s own self-recorded videos, award-winning filmmaker Julie Sokolow creates an inspiring tribute to a remarkable person who lived with passion.

Mark explains in the film, “My journey across the country is a metaphor to not give up.” He literally walked his talk. In fact, he considered it an art form. Warning: you may just want to take off your shoes and go for a walk in nature after you see this inspiring film.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Because of Mark’s personal beliefs and the timing of his walking adventure, the film is very political and anti-Trump.
No profanity.
Talk of life and death.

THEMES:

The movie opens with this line by Mark Baumer: “It’s amazing how often we all forget this is the only opportunity we are ever going to have to live this life.”
Everyone wants to make a positive difference in the world.
Life is more than soul-sucking work.
Passion
Take action
Environmentalism

THINGS I LIKED:

I loved the exuberance of Mark’s first day of his adventure. He laughs and yells, “Oh, this is so beautiful! Thank you, Earth! Ha Ha! It’s Earth! Look at Earth!”
Mark has a fun, quirky, and entertaining personality in his video diary. His comments are insightful and hilarious at times.
It was interesting to see the various things he ate on his journey: leaves, mushrooms, Hummus, garbanzo beans, etc.
It was so touching to see how many people stopped him to offer him shoes and food.
The timing of Mark’s adventure was during President Trump’s first election, so it was interesting to watch his reactions to the campaign and all that was happening at the time.
It was impressive to see the sheer quantity of content he produced while walking each day. He posted videos on YouTube, wrote poetry, updated his blog, and edited everything from his cell phone.
It was cute how everyone talked about his feet as if they were a separate entity or person.
It was sweet to see the outpouring of love and support for Mark from people all over the world. If you’re touched by Mark’s story, you can donate money to the Mark Baumer Sustainability Fund online. His parents created it to support the causes that Mark was so passionate about.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

People being interviewed at the beginning of the movie talk about Mark in past-tense, giving the viewers the idea that Mark passed away. I didn’t know anything about him before I watched this film, so I was sad to learn within minutes of starting the movie that it was going to end in tragedy.

FUNNY LINES:

“I don’t want to live in a world where penguins don’t exist!” – Mark Baumer
“Wait, that math can’t be right. What is $100 million minus $1000?” – Mark Baumer
“Woah! I can’t believe my red pepper has a green pepper inside it!” – Mark Baumer
“Thank you, world, for all the things I get to touch with my eyeballs!” – Mark Baumer

INTERESTING LINES:

“If you’re worried about not getting dead, then you gotta enjoy it when you’re not being dead where you are at this exact moment.” – Mark Baumer
“I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” – Mark Baumer
“If we can’t coexist with the earth, the earth will find a way to rid itself of us.” – Mark’s dad
“If there’s a heaven, it’s this earth and we should do all we can to make sure it exists after we’re gone.” – Mark
“If you had to make heaven from scratch, you couldn’t create something as beautiful and as perfect as this earth.” – Mark

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