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Yar, you be here: Fast, Cheap & Out of Control > Customer Reviews Fast, Cheap & Out of Control Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 10 Reviews)An exploration of humanity's place in the natural world
This film delves into the relationships between humanity and nature (which is the real fast, cheap, and out of control entity of the title, the source of the phrase notwithstanding). The four men interviewed by Morris interact with nature in four archetypal ways. The animal trainer deals with his charges much as people with each other, using empathy and concepts such as emotion, intelligence, and volition. The topiary gardener battles against nature-as-decay-and-chaos, waging an eternal war against wildness to fashion familiar images in an uncooperative medium. The mole-rat specialist is drawn to nature by a sense of wonder and curiosity that is deepened by his every discovery. Finally, the roboticist is inspired to the sincerest form of flattery; he borrows from the imagination of nature to solve his technical problems. The interleaving of the four interviews and the use of musical and visual effects to stress thematic unity is not a cheap device to appeal to the MTV generation, as has been claimed. On the contrary, it is essential to the communication of the film's thesis. These four ways of relating to nature (which might be called animistic, antagonistic, descriptive, and imitative) are often portrayed as stages in the progress of mankind, ordered in various ways according to one's ideology. Morris presents them as eternal and complementary aspects of humanity's relationship with (and place in) the physical universe. The lives of these four men illustrate that even in the present day, each philosophical approach has both shortcomings and a unique and irreplaceable utility. The interplay between a philosophical battle for supremacy and a utilitarian doctrine of complementarity is a familiar pattern. For years, scientists have struggled with the idea that biology is "really" chemistry and chemistry is "really" physics, an idea that succeeds and fails in fascinating ways. Morris generalizes this concept beautifully to the larger question of the relationship between humanity and the physical world.
In the first third of the film I reckoned the film to be just a gorgeous montage. A topiary gardener, a robot engineer, a mole-rat expert and a lion tamer... each doing their own bizarre thing. Visually great and certainly interesting. But at the midpoint the movie became alive for me. The passion the characters have for their respective activity forces the viewer to become a fifth character, a ghost eccentric facing the screen. Morris not only validates your passion, but makes you repent for not being more intense. Each day you've spent not doing what you love seems very wasted. And the remainder of your life becomes a resource that you ought not to squander. "Fast, Cheap and Out of Control" subtly and generously leads anyone in the audience equipped with a gut, a heart and a brain to wake up and feel alive. This film melds what makes David Salle a great painter with what makes Gerald Stern great poet. Morris will certainly become known as a master.
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