The Delights of Automobiling

Gruesome early example of what can only be described as black humor. A car explodes causing a grizzly precipitation of body parts onto a passing policeman. Only one scene and one camera angle but an interesting early experimentation with camera effects and an attempt to set the scene with the use of extras crossing the road in front of the car before it explodes. The ending, as the policeman sorts through the body parts, has a surreal, pythonesque feel about it.

This is a very early version of black humour and it works just as well as any of today's jokes. It's a short and sweet film about the titular explosion of a motor car. The special effects were quite impressive for the time and really contribute to the absurdity of the situation.

Both the camera effects and the rather macabre sense of humor work pretty well in this short feature about the "Explosion of a Motor Car". Its original viewers were probably most interested in the special camera effects. These might not seem like anything special now, but in a few of these very old films they are really no less convincing than some of the computer-generated images that are so overused at the present time.

Beyond the camera tricks, there are some amusing moments from the policeman who comes to survey the scene. The morbid humor in his bureaucratic, officious response to the situation is amusing in itself, and it forms a contrast with the more dramatic parts of the action. Because of that, this little feature has a comic balance that you often don't see in movies of its kind that have been made more recently. It's also always interesting to see movies about automobiles that were made in the days when both cars and movies were still novelties.

Explosion of a Motor Car (1900)

**** (out of 4)

If you're a fan of these early films then you know that the majority of them are rather safe all around. That's certainly not the case for this Edison film that has the camera set up at the end of the road when we notice a car driving towards it. Once the car is close to the frame it blows up killing people people in it. We then see their clothing and body parts fall to the ground as a policeman watches.

EXPLOSION OF A MOTOR CAR is a pretty wacky early film that would even keep modern viewers entertained. There's really nothing overly special here, meaning that this film certainly didn't change movie history but at the same time it's rather violence and silly at the same time. It's certainly worth watching at least once and the laughs you get will probably have you going for a repeat viewing.

As the title suggest, this short is based around a car blowing up. Those expecting modern effects will be amused to see how this explosion is achieved (with a simple cut where the car is replaced with a pile of metal and wheels) however it is not the effects that are memorable. Rather what is memorable is the dark edge to this early film. The thing to remember is that the motor car was hardly a well established and taken-of-granted device that it is today but that it would have still had an element of mistrust in the way some older people still view computers today.

So to have this explode killing the passengers is one thing but the film goes beyond that with the macabre spectacle of the policeman picking his way through falling body parts, trying to inventory and perhaps put them back in the correct pile. It is not really funny although it is slightly comic but for me it was more fascinating to see such a thing in a film this old. Not brilliant of course but an interesting bit of cinema history.