Sleuthing is no hobby
The new documentary to hit Max this week is They Called Him Mostly Harmless. The true account of the internet craze behind the mysterious discovery of a body in southwest Florida that belonged to a hiker who was making his way through the Appalachian Trail. Due to his encounters with other hikers, many found his death a mystery that needed to be solved, and the journey to that answer is a twisting and turning trail loaded with informational misfires and internet sleuthing.
There is a lot to unpack in this documentary that wants to teeter into true crime but also tries to tell a touching human story that contrasts life online with life in the great outdoors and being off the grid. The title, They Called Him Mostly Harmless is created off of the fact that on hiking trials, expert hikers sometimes don’t give out their name, and the subject of the film gave off a few different nick names; ‘Mostly Harmless’ was one of them.
His chance encounters always came off as bittersweet to those he met on the trail. Only giving off information he wanted about himself, but never enough to fully reveal himself.
When ‘Mostly Harmless’ body was found in a tent near the Florida Everglades, the mystery around him grew around the hiking community online. His body was found in the summer of 2018, at 80 lbs, looking like a skeleton with a sheet of skin draped over him.
It was such a mystery that internet sleuths from all over jumped on board, trying to track down who this man was since his identity was a mystery. Was he murdered? Was he sick and just thought to lay down and die? Nobody knew this man, but he had to have someone looking for him, right?
From there, They Called Him Mostly Harmless shifts a bit, bringing in internet investigators who rival one another to try and find the answers that circled around Mostly Harmless. Many who encountered him in person spoke about him as if he had an aura about him; he was a man on a mission, and so were those trying to solve the mystery around why he left this world.
The turn in the documentary is polarizing as it sets something up for the film’s subject: was he on the run? Did he kill someone? Did he kill someone while on his long hike? Questions like that are not raised verbally by any of the interviewees in the film, but they sure are implied. If you know the true story around this case, then you know that Mostly Harmless ends up being no murderer, but many would agree that he may not have been that great of a guy.
In terms of tone, the documentary is trying to reach a real epic conclusion, but it never does. However, Mostly Harmless’ reveal does give us some closure, and debate rages on around how we need to view this man’s flaws or his wrongdoings toward others and himself. On the flip side of that, do we really look at his issues towards others as our problem, and should we judge They Called Him Mostly Harmless’ subject off of singular encounters that other hikers had with him?
The movie does have a lot to say about those who are sitting in the comment sections on forums with their own ideas of a mystery, whether backed up by evidence or just in the mood to say mean things. They Called Him Mostly Harmless takes you on a ride down the rabbit hole of the internet while simultaneously taking you deep into the mystery of a man many feel connected to but never really knew.
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10