Another movie review - Dr Bronner's Peppermint Castile soap

[Guest guest]

I'll bet most of you are familiar with Dr Bronner's Peppermint

Castile soap. Here's a review of a movie about Dr Bronner. (I always

thought it was Bonner. Guess I never saw the " r " in his name).

http://movies.go.com/dr-bronners-magic-soapbox/r892714/documentary

OUR REVIEW

by Dave White

Who's in It: Dr. Emil Bronner (archive footage), Ralph Bronner

The Basics: A documentary about the grooviest soap on earth, Dr.

Bronner's Castile Peppermint Soap, and its kooky, visionary creator,

Emanuel Bronner. He escaped a mental hospital in the late 1940s,

stopped in Las Vegas, won $400 gambling and then made it to Los

Angeles, where he developed his product that's now a multimillion-

dollar-a-year business.

What's the Deal? It's a pretty typically structured documentary with

lots of talking heads attached to long beards and rasta caps; but

it's the subject matter - the most atypical super-eccentric CEO

around and his ranting, religious-like zeal for world peace and human

unity and cleanliness above all else - that really elevates it above

the doc pack.

My Own Personal Dr. Bronner's Testimonial: I had no idea Dr.

Bronner's Soap was considered a hippie product when I first bought

some. I just liked the idea of peppermint soap. And the born-again

Christian, anti-evolution, college biology professor who recommended

it to me was no hippie, either. But as it turns out, every stoner on

Earth thinks this is the best soap there is. And I'm guessing that's

because it's so thorough and strong that it cleans off the smell of

all that pot. Anyway, it's great soap. You should buy some. Just make

sure you follow the directions on the manifesto-crammed label

( " DILUTE! DILUTE! DILUTE! " ) or your " undercarriage " will sting like

crazy.

Best Part: Aside from the archive footage of the late Dr. Bronner

ranting about how we're " all one, " there's a great moment when his

son, a man who seems to have inherited his father's gift for boundary-

pushing interpersonal communication, visits the mental hospital the

inventor was housed in, where he's met by an administrator who seems

a little embarrassed by the place's snake-pit past.

And Here's Your Proof: The hippie guy interviewee who lists his

favorite influential people in the world as Zappa, Dennis

Hopper, Lennon and Dr. Bronner.

Carl Grimes

Healthy Habitats LLC