Unknown
- Episode aired Sep 28, 2012
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1.6: Unknown by Lee Blessing: I prefer not to take it at face value but rather as a negative commentary on onlookers
Following the sweeping meaning of the previous film Not (En) Titled, this film Unknown seems a lot more personal and reflective in nature. In it a man relates to the camera the story of when he was waiting at a crowded train station and saw a young person get down off the platform onto the track just before the train came. It is a very contained tale and it is one that we not only see in the words but also see through the affected but yet slightly detached delivery of the witness.
Michael Emerson plays it very well, delivering everything in one take. He plays with a sense of wonderment at what he saw and he does struggle in a realistic way to find a connection to himself in terms of how it affected him or what he took from it. This is a slight downside to the piece though, because it is ultimately about the witness and I did find the ending to be a bit pat – that the witness takes away a gift of a better understanding of what people like this young man must be going through even in such a great country as America. As a conclusion to the film it is weak on the face of it, but it may also be that the writer is holding up his witness as part of the problem – that the suffering and death of others around him is something that he deals with intellectually, boiling it down to some sort of personal experience and then carrying on with his day.
Indeed his comments that nobody took his statement back this up a little, because it suggests somehow he has something to add or to discuss about such a clear suicide – but he doesn't, beyond a pat lesson. Perhaps I misread the piece and should have taken it at face value for its words and its "lesson" at the end, but this seems too simple and is a lot less satisfying. I prefer to take it the other way, to see it as a statement on modern life and the detachment between us. In this way I found it a more engaging short film – but regardless it gave me that to think about and to mull over after it finished, which is a good thing for a film to do.
Michael Emerson plays it very well, delivering everything in one take. He plays with a sense of wonderment at what he saw and he does struggle in a realistic way to find a connection to himself in terms of how it affected him or what he took from it. This is a slight downside to the piece though, because it is ultimately about the witness and I did find the ending to be a bit pat – that the witness takes away a gift of a better understanding of what people like this young man must be going through even in such a great country as America. As a conclusion to the film it is weak on the face of it, but it may also be that the writer is holding up his witness as part of the problem – that the suffering and death of others around him is something that he deals with intellectually, boiling it down to some sort of personal experience and then carrying on with his day.
Indeed his comments that nobody took his statement back this up a little, because it suggests somehow he has something to add or to discuss about such a clear suicide – but he doesn't, beyond a pat lesson. Perhaps I misread the piece and should have taken it at face value for its words and its "lesson" at the end, but this seems too simple and is a lot less satisfying. I prefer to take it the other way, to see it as a statement on modern life and the detachment between us. In this way I found it a more engaging short film – but regardless it gave me that to think about and to mull over after it finished, which is a good thing for a film to do.
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- bob the moo
- Sep 7, 2014
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