A Piece of Wood

A PIECE OF WOOD is an interesting little low budget sci-fi film lasting only about 15 minutes. There are only two actors in the film and the set is very simple, yet considering the plot this works out quite well.

As the film opens, a soldier enters his commanding officer's office about his next assignment. He is being the choice of serving on the Western or the Northern fronts in a war that has apparently been going on for 16 years. However, instead of making this decision, the young soldier talks about this strange delusion--that he has actually come up with a way to make all weapons disintegrate into piles of rust and thus ending this war. The officer, naturally, thinks the guy is crazy and when the recruit leaves, he calls the base hospital to report that the man has lost his mind...and then things get really weird! Kudos for making the most of a simple story. It is an interesting film and brings up some interesting ramifications. The only negative, and it's relatively small, is that the acting seemed a bit stiff. It wasn't bad--just not great. Still, an unusual idea well executed--this one's worth a look.

This really shows how great a writer Bradbury is. The film is very direct and effective. I read the short story years ago and after watching this short film decided to reread the story. I was glad and really surprised to discover how true this is to Bradbury's original story. I thought that was the case as soon as I saw it, but decided to double check with the short story since lately every film related project based on a novel or short story completely changes everything for no good reason. The acting is top notch here too. If every filmmaker that sets out to adapt a beloved piece of material would just follow these rules and stick close to the source material fans everywhere wouldn't be complaining all the time as they normally are. I don't get why would anyone want to adapt something and then completely ignore the original. A piece of wood is just as good as Bradbury's short story and it looks amazing too. This would've made a great episode of Ray Bradbury Theater.