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One of my all-time favorite documentaries is Errol Morris’s 1997 film Fast, Cheap and Out of Control. As a punctuation nerd, I disagree with the lack of a serial comma in its title, but we’ll let that slide. Anyway. This film is about humanity, the nature of life on earth, and how humans interact with their world. It covers a lot of ground.
One problem with Fast, Cheap and Out of Control is the naive marketing that surrounds it. The DVD box seems to think the film is a wacky look at some kooks — it reads “…a fascinating portrait of four obsessed eccentrics. … [A] kaleidoscopic look at the very thin line which separates madness from genius.” Well…no. First, dismissing the interview subjects as “obsessed eccentrics” devalues the insight they have (and it’s also a bit offensive). Second, this is a movie about how humans understand other forms of life — animals, plants, even robots. This movie asks what it means to be human, and what separates humans from animals, plants, and robots. The line between madness and genius doesn’t have anything to do with it.
Much more, including video clips, after the jump.
Using interviews with four men — a “wild animal trainer” (aka lion tamer), a topiary gardener, a robot designer, and a naked mole rat expert — Morris shows different modes of interaction with nature. While the lion tamer is all about control, respect, and dominance, the topiary gardener lives a dedicated, solitary existence concerned with patient nurturing. The naked mole rat expert is studying how organisms function in societies (in other words, he’s looking at the function of the larger society-as-organism), and the robot designer is examining “life” at its most basic level — in order to create artificial organisms. All of the men are very cognizant of the influence of the external environment on an organism — how a creature is shaped by its environment. Through interviews and stock footage, Morris makes us ask: is the difference between humans and other organisms (animals, plants, and robots) our ability to control our environment, rather than responding to it? And if we’re going to control our environment, how do we go about it — do we live in symbiosis, do we dominate, do we create our own artificial life and artificial environments? Of course, we do all of these — it’s our nature.
There aren’t many decent clips on YouTube of this documentary, unfortunately. You can watch the trailer at Video Detective, or a few (very low-resolution) clips at Sony Pictures Classics (scroll down to the bottom). I did manage to find one YouTube clip of Errol Morris talking about Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, which is worth a peek:
And here’s an example of the marketing that surrounds the film — trending towards the wacky, but also mentioning the depth of the subject:
I’d recommend this PG-rated film to anyone — I don’t think you need to have any special interest in a topic area to enjoy it. I suppose the main qualification for enjoying this film is an interest in deep thoughts (and not just those by Jack Handey). You can rent it from Netflix or rent it from Blockbuster. Thanks for reading, and please keep the suggestions coming — I’ve got a list of over 50 documentaries to watch based on your feedback!
Comments (15)
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I loved the documentary about Stephen Hawking — A Brief History of Time.
posted by Janix on 8-24-2007 at 1:08 pm
Another great doc is the French “The Gleaners and I,” which is all about living off the food that is left by the mainstream society- in the field and in the market.
posted by Dave on 8-24-2007 at 1:54 pm
As another punctuation nerd, I would normally agree with you about the serial comma, but not when used with an ampersand as on the film poster. Not sure which is the official version.
posted by Matt on 8-24-2007 at 3:45 pm
This movie is in my top three or four of the 90’s, and maybe in my top ten ever. Hands-down, the most brilliant editing work I’ve ever seen anywhere.
If you haven’t already, check out Morris’s Web site, http://www.errolmorris.com, to see (among other things) a gallery of the commercials he’s made. The Levi’s and Miller High Life spots are my favorites; check out the Levi’s ad called “26th and Lex” and you’ll be hooked.
posted by MadMolecule on 8-24-2007 at 6:58 pm
“Standing in the Shadows of Motown” was a recent joy for me – though not of the same “intellectual” bent of some listed, it was a really enjoyable look at the men who played on more big hits than anyone else in history – the Funk Brothers.
posted by Liz on 8-24-2007 at 7:39 pm
I agree, Fast, Cheap & Out of Control is a great documentary, one of my favorites.
A couple of recommendations:
Titicut Follies
The Hellstrom Chronicle
posted by Harold on 8-24-2007 at 7:45 pm
My favorite example of why we need the serial comma is this (probably apocryphal) dedication to a book:
“For my parents, God and Ayn Rand”
Some other good documentaries: Mad Hot Ballroom, Dogtown and Z-Boys, the whole Seven-Up series, and The Fog of War.
posted by Karen on 8-25-2007 at 7:59 am
I’vew seen several of the documentaries listed here. As someone who reads alot of non-fiction I guess these films are a natural for me.
I also agree with the comma.
My question is this: What has this title got to do with the subject of the film?
posted by Bassman on 8-25-2007 at 8:24 am
Great stuff, chris! Keep ‘em comin’. By the way, have you seen ‘why we fight’ yet? It’s kind of a like a michael moore doc without the in-your-face personality …
posted by Ransom on 8-25-2007 at 8:51 am
If you can find, E Morris’ first documentary “Gates of Heaven” is one of the funniest movies you will ever see. It’s about pet cemetaries. I believe it’s one of Ebert’s all time Top Ten.
posted by lanebrain65 on 8-25-2007 at 1:01 pm
Good one! I just saw God Grew Tired Of Us and it’s the bomb, about The Lost Boys of Sudan and their relocation to the US. Great quote, as they show off their newly stocked fridge: “This is Pepsi, but in our country it is called Coca Cola.”
posted by Johnny Cat on 8-26-2007 at 1:20 pm
AP style dicates that, in a list of items, no comma be placed before the “and.”
posted by Les on 8-26-2007 at 9:03 pm
Bassman — oops, I forgot to mention that. The documentary’s title refers to a paper of the same name written by Rodney Brooks (the robot expert) in which he proposes that instead of sending monolithic robots (big, expensive, heavy) into space, we instead send large numbers of tiny, cheap robots. There should be some info on the web/wikipedia about this if you’re interested — or he explains it in the documentary.
posted by Higgins on 8-27-2007 at 10:17 am
Thank you, Les! As a reporter, I knew that, but as a traditional English nerd, the lack of a third comma irks me to no end.
I guess I can’t win.
posted by Michelle on 8-28-2007 at 7:47 pm
Great doc!
Two more must see documentaries are:
Grey Gardens
Lord of The Universe
posted by ariel on 8-31-2007 at 5:26 pm