The Big Shave by Martin Scorsese
Is it wrong that I adored this short? Yes, it was creepy, sadistic and sad, but it was creative and brilliantly produced. When I finished, my eyes were glued to the screen; I was begging for more. Disgust is the general reaction to a man cutting his arteries open and bleeding out, but here the viewer is drawn and grasped by this brutality.
The first concept that the viewer notices is the color scheme of the short. The first scenes are close up shots of the clean, crisp whites and silvers of a shiny, sparkling bathroom. As soon as the music starts, the viewer is drawn to evaluate the perfection of the bathroom along with the “suave” song. My mind diverts to the cliché set of a toiletry commercial. When the dreamboat walks into the bathroom and begins to shave, I still am imagining the commercials of today— using Proactiv is sexy! Shaving your legs is fun! Using Scope is a phenomenal experience! And then, queue the slow motion repeated scene of this hunk taking his shirt off, my assumptions were seemingly right on target in the belief that this was a satire. The blood was a funny, albeit evil, way to rain on the parade of those cheesy commercials.
However, there was so much about this film I did not understand.
Upon more research, I discovered that this is otherwise known as “Viet ’67” and is extremely metaphorical for the US’s involvement in the Vietnam War. I connect those dots. The man goes to the bathroom to clean up as the US began helping Vietnam to fix and clean up the problems. As the first attempts occur, everything is seemingly fine and dandy, but it appears that the US keeps causing more pain and affliction as they attempt to clean up and solve dilemmas more and more. The ultimate pain the man gives himself is that of death. That is a very powerful statement if this video is truly about the United States’ continued to involvement in the toxic Vietnam War.
The viewer would gain none of this insight without the color changes and emotions of the actor. When blood first appears, it is a clashing red against the white (possibly the United States’ innocence in this war?). It is startling and shocking to see against the perfected white of the bathroom. Yet, as more and more blood begins to spill out, which is quite unexpected by the viewer, the symbolic white of the bathroom begins to fade. The gruesome and gory image of a blood covered man, the once hunky dreamboat, is branded in the viewer’s mind as the short comes to a close. His reaction to the continued bleeding and cutting was also quite haunting. He remained cold and emotionless through the whole experience. There was a moment where the viewer sees a tear in the crevice of his eye, but other than that, the only emotion that the viewer regularly sees is the force with which the man shaves himself and his cold stare.
This short film was intriguing, dark and mysterious, and, although I cannot truly understand what it signifies, I am very drawn to the idea that it is up for interpretation. If I hadn’t discovered the second title, I would have thought it was supposed to be comical and mocking. Now, with further knowledge, the short is sad, deeply metaphorical, and disturbingly pertinent to society.
