21-87

I was not surprised to learn that Arthur Lipsett, who created this film, later committed suicide. '21-87' reveals an extremely bleak and pessimistic view of humanity.

To say that Lipsett 'created' this film might be overstatement. It consists of a few soundbites dubbed onto scraps of documentary film footage, scavenged by Lipsett from uncredited sources. Lipsett was Canadian, but most or all of this footage was shot in New York City: I recognise many New York City locations, and (in two separate shots) men are holding New York City newspapers.

Although Lipsett did not shoot any of this footage, he should still take responsibility for his choices of what to include here. Except for a few brief clips of glamorous female circus performers, he seems to have gone out of his way to choose clips which make humanity seem coarse, dirty, effete, superficial. We see an unattractive woman chewing something. We see an overweight slovenly woman primping: indulging her vanity even though her looks are nothing to boast of. A heavy-set man takes his cigar out of his mouth long enough to spit, then shoves his stogie back into his gob. A racetrack railbird has a prominent facial mole. We see a row of pier glasses in a funfair arcade, their warped surfaces distorting the reflexions of the crowd, making them resemble hunchbacked dwarfs. A few young attractive people of both sexes manage to make themselves look ridiculous, frugging wildly at a discotheque.

We briefly see a 'diving horse' at a pier: one of those weird novelty acts that were popular in Atlantic City (New Jersey) in the 1940s. A rider goads his horse up a steep incline to a high platform above water; the platform suddenly collapses, forcing the horse to do a high dive. Lipsett's stock footage of this bizarre performance prominently includes a United States flag, so that his Canadian audience can assure themselves that this particular insanity takes place south of their border.

We also see a fashion show, with anorexic models on a catwalk, flaunting fur coats which Lipsett apparently wants us to interpret as symbolising greed or animal cruelty or something unpleasant. The models are young females but they all wear grotesque maquillage, making them seem more like drag queens. Speaking of drag queens: the film also includes a brief shot of a couple who resemble the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

The film's irrelevant title comes from a remark made in passing on the soundtrack: the audio has no relationship to the images. Allegedly, '21-87' inspired George Lucas to create 'THX 1138'. Apart from both films having numeric titles and being made on micro-budgets, I see almost no similarity. From what I've seen of Lipsett's work, he wasn't remotely as talented as Lucas.

When I finished watching '21-87', my brain wanted to wash its hands. Ick! My rating: zero points for this movie.

A montage of film clips focuses in on the often pointless day to day existence of some people. So many waste the one life they have on tawdry escapades. Obviously, Lipsett had an agenda and this surreal effort brought that out. People are criticizing this for being bleak. I suppose we could criticize Apocalypse Now, wishing it took place somewhere other than Vietnam. It is what it is!

This film was made by Arthur Lipsett back in 1964 and it was seen by some as a terrific and artsy film. Two decades later, Lipsett (who had a long history of bizarre behavior--exhibiting behaviors that might be consistent with a diagnosis of schizophrenia) killed himself. Instead of "genuis", I see this film as the work of a man who already is showing signs of depression and weirdness. The film is mostly random and semi-random images (mostly from New York) of people doing things as you occasionally hear narration about how life sucks. I know it's all supposed to be symbolic of the pointlessness of life, but you wonder if instead of praising this very bad film that people had encouraged him to get therapy he might just be alive today. It all looks to me like a cry for help--not art or even a film worth most people's time.

F Gwynplaine MacIntyre sounds a bit harsh in his review, but I, too, was NOT impressed by this wretched film.

21-87 Review 1964. Arthur Lipsett: There is a mention of "The Force". This is the first indication of what would lead to the terrible Interstellar War. A religion develops leading to holy war. A document to be studied to understand their psychology. The Force aka Jedi religion is still active and is carried by astronauts. Such has been the cause of several Conelrad Alerts. Adherents: Vader, Vader Clones, Mendez I - XXVI, Spocked, Zaphod Babblebrox, Yoda, Harvey Wallbanger (no existing photos), Fresh Gordon. Mercerism's Rick Deckard is also a disciple. Led to the Weaponization of Space. An historic film. As one reviewer put it, "All current problems with humans come from this - they believe they are more in their head then they are."

It will be removed to the Ape Science Academy for safe keeping. Humans Alert: Degenerate Art. No Rating: Immediate Incarceration of the artifact. Conelrad Alert: 68.

If you've ever thought that the human race was a great thing, then you need to be taken down a peg or two. Why not try some Arthur Lipsett? '21-87 (1964)' might just be the bleakest, most pessimistic snapshot of society that I've ever seen, presenting the director's dissatisfaction with and even disdain for contemporary 1960s culture. A seemingly-random collage of urban footage, both scrapped from the archives of the National Film Board of Canada and photographed by Lipsett himself in Montreal and New York City, is mixed with an unrelated soundtrack that muses on the "importance" of religion in everyday life. The end result is to emphasise the emptiness, dehumanisation and alienation of modern man. Footage of a street performer imitating robot movement is followed by a robotic factory arm performing human chores; fashion models mechanically strut the catwalk with blank, impassive faces; middle-aged women browse shop windows, coveting superficial fashions forced upon them by greater society, rather than by their own independent minds.

Lipsett captures ugly, anonymous faces in the street. Each person seems to be lost in the chaos of living, disconnected from his fellow man, staring off into space at something that we do not see. Several spectators spot the camera filming them and gaze uncertainly at it; one man, coming up an escalator, raises a newspaper to obscure his face. These instances of self-awareness could easily have been edited out, but are instead given prominence. Lipsett's camera – and, thus, his film – is showing these people the mechanical emptiness of their everyday lives, but they're in denial, unwilling to exhibit their depravity for the impartial eye of the camera lens. One sequence perfectly encapsulates this distorted self-perception, as men and women playfully grin at warped reflections of themselves in a carnival mirror (one little girl apparently isn't fooled, and recoils tearfully from the grotesque image of herself). Cocteau's 'The Blood of a Poet (1930)' contends that only through the personal suffering of the artist can a beautiful work of art be created. If so, '21-87' is the suffering of its creator.