Dilemma

Just watched this-one of the earliest of the computer-animated films-on YouTube. Directed by Eric Brown and John Halas, it shows various images with eerie electronic music as the score. They're hard to describe in detail but it shows a pendulum swinging, some sculptural faces, guns shooting, blood on those faces I described, etc. Some spaceships looking like it's eating another one. The short is ten minutes and it's not very easy to understand what the message is though if you're an artistic type, this may be up your alley. I'm admitting I wasn't too enamored of this one though I'm glad I got the chance to judge for myself. So on that note, Dilemma is worth a look if you're interested.

My friend and I obsessed for years over the identity of the short film we saw, whenever we went to see 'Return Of the Jedi' in the UK in 1985. I remembered the images of the Easter island Head being shot and he remembered the bigger fish swallowing the smaller fish and so on... After a through search I managed to track it down on DVD - and I was not disappointed!! The 'story' is simple, the film tells of the developments of man, and how all we are doing is inventing new and bigger machines and working towards war and our own destruction. But, it's the imagery that always sticks and the often very strange soundtrack. The film was applauded on it's release as it used computers for animation for one of the very first times (how things have advanced), but I remember it as the short film before 'Return Of The Jedi'. Having finally tracked it down I was able to fully relive one of the moments of my youth - and it was good!!

This is one of those "history of the world" comments, done in animated form. We see a big pendulum, as you would see on a grandfather clock, indicating time passage. Overall, the idea was to show that guns ruined the world. Yes, it's another tired exercise in preaching the evils of violence and guns, in particular. Well.....no kidding - tell that to the feature filmmakers around the world today whose films are an excess of blood and explosions.

Anyway, here is what is presented, and it chronological order. I may have missed an item or two. We see drawings of: Aristotle, Copernicus, Easter Island, Jesus, Rome, Egypt, Vikings, African tribes, Knights, knight warfare, kings, spears, Leonardo DaVinci, different architecture, clocks, sewing machine, electric circuitry, rockets, space ship, space stations, giant space ships that look like sharks eating smaller ones, TVs, photocopiers, guns, bullet holes in heads, blood coming out of the holes, more guns, more blood, all blood, a red rose, planet Earth, the atom, the atom bomb, desolation and finally, a tear out of an eye.

This 11-minute Independent animated short film was under the "Halas & Batchelor" DVD title but I don't think Batchelor, the wife of director-writer John Halas, had any connection with this one.