Shredder Orpheus. Shredder. Orpheus. Shhhhhhhhredder Orrrrrrrpheus. What is a shredder, you ask? One that shreds, I would reply. Shredding is the subtle art of using one's skateboard to tear a path of gnarly tricks and bodacious bust-a-moves wherever one would go, a parking garage for example. Orpheus, well, he's the mythical figure that went down to hell to retrieve his dead girlfriend, Eurydice, and failed to avoid looking back at her while leading her out, thereby losing her once again to Hades. What do you get when you combine these two seemingly unrelated topics?
The most flawless cinematic masterpiece ever created by the hands of man.
Robert McGinley's ingenious social commentary on the effect of television on the emerging generation X of the world through the medium of The Euthanasia Broadcast Network is one of the many things that makes this film worth lobbying to be released on DvD. I would be willing to shell out any amount of cash just to hear McGinley's commentary on what it was like to film such scenes as "Thrashing the Euthanasia Garage" and "Today's used cars are better than ever", not to mention the prolific, heart-wrenching introductory war-torn speech by the Janus-influenced character of Axel.
The music to this movie is amazing. The sound that Orpheus produces from his futuristic, Hendrix created magical axe has such an effect on the people around him that the very reality around them is distorted, which you can see by the special effects that far surpass any that ILM or any computer could whip up nowadays. Rash's inspirational drumming shows that McGinley really has his pulse on the youth of today, or of the future for that matter. One can only imagine what sort of gruelling preparation that actress had to go through to learn the complicated sixteenth-note triplets and paradiddles that grace our ears from the rusty metal orchestra.
The film ultimately questions about what it is to be human and experience real life and true emotions. From the tear-jerking meeting of Orpheus with his dead parents (who sadly did not get to see their son's beautiful wedding ceremony in the Grey Zone) to the jaw-dropping, majestic finale of Orpheus' orgasmic confrontation with the chainsaw-wielding Furies, this film is a must-see, if not a must-own as well.
