Cheap Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Video) (Dave Hoover, George Mendonça, Ray Mendez (II), Rodney Brooks) (Errol Morris) Price
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In Fast, Cheap & Out of Control, documentarian Errol Morris proves that the weird and obscure are just as interesting as the rich and famous. Morris tries to add depth to his subjects with his out-of-control editing technique, which after a while becomes an annoying distraction; these guys are fascinating enough all by themselves. The blare of the background music is also a bit much. Despite these shortcomings, though, if you like taking a voyeuristic peek into other people's lives, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control gives you plenty to look at. --Luanne Brown
| ACTORS: | Dave Hoover, George Mendonça, Ray Mendez (II), Rodney Brooks |
| CATEGORY: | Video |
| DIRECTOR: | Errol Morris |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | 03 October, 1997 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Columbia/Tristar Studios |
| MPAA RATING: | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) |
| FEATURES: | Color, Closed-captioned, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Documentary |
| MEDIA: | VHS Tape |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 043396238138 |
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Customer Reviews of Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
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.
Four Men, Alive
This film reminded me of two different writers whose ideas I find compelling: Joseph Campbell and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Campbell is well-known for his saying "Find your bliss," while Csikszentmihalyi's research examines the phenomenon of "flow." Both concepts highlight the importance of finding challenging things you enjoy doing, and keeping at them until you've attained some level of proficiency. Campbell and Csikszentmihalyi argue that once you achieve this, you'll have found meaning in life through doing something that is not work, but play. To have challenging, absorbing activities in which we can lose ourselves is perhaps one of the greatest pleasures of being alive, and it is this idea which Errol Morris illustrates in Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.
What the four men in the film do--create topiaries, build robots, tame wild animals, and study mole-rats--is not the point of the documentary. The point is that each of them has found something in this world which completely engages him. The more he gets involved with his calling, the more he learns about it, and the greater the drive becomes to delve deeper and deeper into his chosen passion. Watching this documentary, I found myself thinking "how lucky these men are...!" Really, though, their circumstances have almost nothing to do with luck. It was by working hard that they developed their interests into full-blown passions. In the end, Errol Morris proves that it doesn't matter what you're interested in, or how weird or boring it may seem to others. If you find something to do in this world that lights a spark within you, and you work to turn that spark into a four-alarm blaze, then you've made the shift from merely living to being alive.
Not Good.
'Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control' was a film I lost interest in very quickly. I turned it off after about 30 minutes.