Juxtaposition Makes My Head Spin

It’s official: Errol Morris is a god among men! Just in case you didn’t already know, I figured I’d reiterate that his films (at least all of those I’ve now seen) are A-MA-ZING!

So let’s talk about Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, shalll we?  I’ll admit, I was waiting for the moment when I was able to figure out what the title meant, I’m glad that it was something specific in the film it’s like if you cough you might miss it.  But there were so many things about this film that I loved even if I’m not quite sure yet what they meant.  I mean, when the camera filmed the circus audience from an angle that made it appear like they were in a cage… I got that one! Plus, the trainer guy was talking about how to the animals everything outside their cage is the cage.  I think we do that as humans.  We carve out for ourselves this little niche in the world and then we look at the big, wide world of change as some sort of trap.

But then we got the old man with the old fashioned shears in the topiary garden juxtaposed with the MIT guy who makes robots who could bring on the dawn of the silicon age.  O.K. that was fascinating, but I can’t quite wrap my head around it just yet.  There’s gotta be a reason why we can still hear the sound of the topiary shears even after we’ve moved on to another scene I just don’t know why?!? That’ll be my question for class… what’s up w/ the topiary dude?