The Big Shave

(6 minutes) One of those films that have received a lot of acclaim, and leave me a bit mystified, like the works of Kenneth Anger, to which it has been compared. (I attended a showing of Anger’s works hosted by the man himself while attending a film class at Michigan State. I found them puzzling—I was 18, fresh out of small-town Texas—but interesting.) It consists solely of a man shaving. But after he has shaved off the stubble, he keeps going, getting bloodier and bloodier. The self-destructive nature of the shaving has been described as a protest against the Viet Nam War. Okay, I guess. Maybe you had to be there in 1967 (I was, but didn’t see this film) for the full impact. I just thought it rather silly.