Exposing Muybridge (2021) User Reviews

Seeing Is Believing....Isn't It?

[Minnesota_Reid · 8/10 · 14 May 2022]

Muybridge was an early photographer whose pioneering work in using multiple still pictures to capture motion too fast for the human eye to see led directly to cinema. He also photographed remote places like Yosemite and Alaska immediately after the US purchased it.

He was neither particularly ethical (murder) nor honest (his name mutated multiple times over his life, evolving from Edward Muggeridge to Eadweard Muybridge).

As actor Gary Oldman, who narrates some of this doc, puts it, Muybridge was also the first director, because he would pose and dress people to get the visual effect that he wanted, and to imply small stories. What is that but directing?

Recommended.

A much-needed closer look at Muybridge

[deborah-99172 · 8/10 · 13 June 2023]

A comprehensive documentary of the rise and fall of a complicated man. We know him for the horse photos, but this film details his landscape photo work, his stereoscopic images, his "scientific" sequence photos that seemed to begin harmlessly enough but gradually became more and more voyeuristic and questionable. A man who lived through a time of profound mechanical change; a man constantly putting himself at risk for the sake of an image; a man of extreme temper... He may be the father of the moving image, but, surprisingly, his images also attest to him being an early proponent of photoshop! Gary Oldman adds some needed flavor and drama to the commentary, but all of the experts are interesting. I highly recommend!

Not what I thought it would be

[thejdrage · 7/10 · 25 April 2023]

This is not what I thought it would be. That said, I had not idea what I thought it would be. Obviously I have a conundrum here.

The one thing I remember from years gone by, was that he was the one who proved that when horses are galloping, all four of their legs are off the ground at the same time. And that was an amazing find - at the time.

Some of his nature photos were him proving his boldness (stupidity?). And other times seeing was not believing in what he did.

He certainly was not a one trick galloping pony when it came to photography and this documentary points them all out logically and honestly. There is no judgement on the parts of the experts, just observations.

I learned a ton about this man! And now I can gallop on.