Amazon.com video review:
Short 1: Invention represents the first comprehensive attempt to
compile multimedia content on DVD in a magazine-like format, and it's a
welcome addition to the digital realm. Originally released on the defunct
Polygram label as Short Cinema Journal, Vol. 1, the first
installment in the Short series is an above-average mix of
documentary, animation, and live-action shorts, even if
several of the entries are nearly a decade old. The DVD is divided into six
topics--"Marquee"; "Hello, Dali"; "Reality"; "Sound Bit"; "Minutes"; and
"Junkdrawer"--the best highlights are to be found in "Hello, Dali,"
"Reality," and "Minutes,"
which contain interesting, even brilliant, bits. The excerpt from Shape
Without Form is a
surreal, four-minute exercise in angst and it shares a slot with the most
noteworthy discovery on the DVD, the creative and ingenious Will
Vinton-produced Mr. Resistor, which is a cleverly animated, Road
Warrior-like
ride through the electrical world. In the "Minutes" chapter, British
director
Michael Apted discusses the premise that "film is the poetry of ordinary
life," and although eight minutes can't begin to cover a director's career,
this segment does its expurgated best.
There are segments from the Ron Fricke film Baraka (also available
as a full-length DVD), which still dazzles after
nearly two decades with its austere lesson in nature and humanity. Black
Rider is an Oscar-winning German short that chronicles a black man's
plight on a tram, with a delightful twist ending. A slight disappointment,
George Hickenlooper's Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade is the
original short that inspired Billy Bob Thornton's acclaimed feature film
version, and it pales in comparison. Likewise, Henry Rollins's Easter
Sunday in NYC is little more than an angry, pointless, and dated rant
for misfits everywhere. Some of the films--like the clay-animated movie
spoof The Big Story, featuring Frank Gorshin's hilarious impression
of Kirk Douglas--are sure to please those who never saw them on the film
festival circuit. On the whole, the good outweighs the mediocre in this
deft compilation, boding well for subsequent volumes in the series.
--Paula Nechak
Amazon.com video review:
Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade is the short film on which Billy
Bob Thornton based Sling Blade (and the reason Thornton was awarded
the best adapted--not best original--screenplay). The film is essentially
the opening scenes of Sling Blade, in which Thornton's character,
Karl Childers, is shown about to leave the mental hospital, intoning his
account of his youthful crime to a naive reporter writing about his
release. While the screenplay here is virtually the same as the
corresponding part of the longer film, this film leaves a lingering
chilling feeling. Unlike Sling Blade, which allows the audience to
see Karl's innate goodness, this version ends at the end of the interview,
when the reporter (here played by Molly Ringwald) is left stunned at the
horrors she's just heard, and she (and the audience) have no real idea if
Karl is someone who should be turned loose or not. Fans of Sling
Blade owe it to themselves to see this version, too--focusing on its
far darker sensibility adds to the appreciation of the work it would later
become. (Historic footnote: unlike Sling Blade, Some Folks Call
It a Sling Blade was directed by George Hickenlooper, codirector of the
acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse,
who was none too happy when the media attention over Sling Blade
virtually ignored his contributions to the original film.) --Anne
Hurley
