Here is a better link to MORE
I still can't figure out how to put the video directly on this page, so if anyone knows the secret, could you leave me a comment. I have a Mac, so all you smart Mac users, please help!!
More is a striking commentary on consumerism and its relationship with the pursuit of happiness. LD (little dude) tries to make a new product that will provide its buyers with BLISS, but in doing so, he just perpetuates the cycle of consumerism, selling himself out and turning into the the thing he hates. LD uses is inner light to make this BLISS product and in the process, he loses it. The world is still grey and ugly, but now he is the one screaming at misirable employees, dark form the inside out. The short ends with him still sad, lonely but now tainted.
This short is so moving because of its clear parallels with our culture. As college students, were are like the LD of the beginning of the short, tired of the grind of college life and trying to find what makes us happy. Hopefully, we will be wiser that LD and not sell ourselves for the love of money and power, but find a way to be happy without taking happiness from others. We must use the beauty in each of us in a positive way, instead of using it for greed.
3 comments:
There is a lot in this short film to discuss...I'm not even sure where to begin. First of all, why does LD have to be a blob creature? Does this non-human form distance us from the allegory, or make it easier to understand? If it really is easy to 'get' the moral of this narrative, what are any of us doing in this "grey and ugly" world? (Why don't we head for greener landscapes?) Of course I realize that it is hard to quantify greed, and things like Project (red) make us think that we can have our greed and be good too...but it would seem that this MORE short suggests that we are doomed unless we make a radical break: go back to being children...or what? Are there other alternatives to childlike joy? Plant a garden? Work fewer hours and want less? What to do?!? You've landed us in a real quagmire here. Help us out!
"We must use the beauty in each of us in a postive way, instead of using it for greed." What, dare I ask, is a "positive way"??? Would people agree on this? Maybe we need to learn our deconstructive lesson and hesitate before terms of 'positive' and 'negative'—and find a more nuanced way to argue for what we should do, as humans. Finally, in "MORE," why is our beauty located in our gut?? I worry that this looking 'inward' keeps us from looking out at that gray, blocky world that we've made.
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