21-87

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.

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!

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.

one of Lipsett's many found-footage films (films made up of footage 'sampled' from other films) this short uses a fairly abstract montage of shots to comment on the isolation and alienation of the modern man (1964 modern) in a mechanised society. the individual footage itself is quite amazing and the overall effect of the montage leaves one with a definate sense of unease. apparently george lucas saw this in film school and was inspired to make THX-1138. a premium example of the new hollywood film makers of the 70's technique of adapting highly experimental avant-garde films into their own relatively conventional narrative structures (see also Blow-up into Blow-out)

Lipsett worked at the National Film Board of Canada in the late 60's. He would collect pieces of sound and fit them together to create an interesting auditory sensation. After playing one of these creations to friends, they suggested that Lipsett put images to it. Tthe result became the 7 minute long film Very Nice, Very Nice which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Live Action Subjects in 1962. Despite not winning the Oscar, this film brought Lipsett considerable praise from critics and directors. Stanley Kubrick was one of Lipsett's fans, and asked him to create a trailer for his upcoming movie Dr. Strangelove. Lipsett declined Kubrick's offer. Kubrick went on to direct the trailer himself; however, Lipsett's influence on Kubrick is clearly visible when watching the trailer.

Lipsett's film 21-87 was a profound influence on director George Lucas who included elements from it in THX 1138, (The role of religion in a technological society, the robot arms, THX discovers that LUH was killed on the date 21/87), American Graffiti and of course Star Wars. 21-87 has been credited by Lucas as the source of the "The Force" in Star Wars (Lipsett's "They become aware of a force behind this apparent mask in front of us. They call it God." Also, the holding cell of Princess Leia on the Death Star is cell No. 2187.