Human Remains

What a great idea to use the personal writings of the 20th century's dictators to illustrate their home movies, propaganda films and news clips.

The artist exhibited a keen sense of knowing what words to put with which shot. For example, Hitler's discussion of his flatulence voices over a shot of Hitler and two other people fanning the air about them. Wonderful contrasts between the words of the subject and the action of the subject as recorded on film appear in other shots.

The artist also had a keen ear for what words to choose. All of the subjects left extensive writings. He managed to pick the right five or ten minutes of their written remains to illustrate them properly.

Additionally, the similarities among the subjects startled me. On several points the words used were very close to identical. In other instances he illustrated the similarities in intensity rather than detail.

If anyone ever needed to know why the 20th century was such a mess and had only thirty minutes in which to figure it out, this film would be the place to go.

The sound effects used to enhance the film distracted me a bit. The unclear shots of the man with the shovel created another distraction.