Why Man Creates

Movie
Original title	Why Man Creates
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1968
length	25 minutes
Rod
Director	Saul Bass
script	Saul Bass Mayo Simon
production	Saul Bass
music	Jeff Alexander
camera	Erik Daarstad
cut	Albert Nalpas Kent Mackenzie Cliffe Oland

Why Man Creates is an American partially animated short film by Saul Bass from 1968.

action

The film is divided into different segments:

• 1. The Edifice: The animation initially shows cavemen chasing an animal. A cave painting of the hunted animal forms the basis for a building that begins to grow into the sky. The development of man shows up through his inventions, objective and intellectual, but also related to the definition of society. In the present, the building has gained an extreme height. A person stands at the top, his body hidden in the clouds, calling for help.
• 2. Fooling Around: Since some ideas come from fooling around, some absurd scenes are shown, including an egg that contains color when opened, a butterfly, a conversation between two people who end up getting lost exchanging numbers, or Passers-by who take the traffic light instructions go and stop literally and, for example, stop in the middle of the intersection. The narrator makes it clear that the work only begins when the idea is there.
• 3. The Process: A man piles up building blocks until they collapse. Supported by quotes from Thomas Alva Edison , Ernest Hemingway and Albert Einstein , who describe the difficult process of implementing ideas, the man can finally complete his project. He stuck the arms and legs of moving mannequins into the building blocks. A hand is holding the US flag.
• 4. The Judgment: The work of art is presented to the public and assessed by them. Quotes capture the opinions of passers-by, with ratings ranging from radical rejection to acceptance.
• 5. A Parable: The table tennis ball production is shown. A ball that bounces higher than the others is discarded and then bounces through town. In a park, other table tennis balls surround him and watch him jump. A particularly high jump makes the ball disappear. Opinions on what will happen to him differ: a) he comes back, it will only take a little time; b) it is destroyed because balls cannot fly; c) he landed on balls that also jump higher than others.
• 6) A Degression: Two snails talk about how radical ideas threaten institutions and, when they become institutions, reject radical ideas because they threaten institutions.
• 7) The Search: Scientists are shown: a cancer researcher who has been researching for 20 years and is now on the verge of a breakthrough; a plant researcher who has been researching for 12 years and whose results can be applied in 15 to 20 years; a man who has been researching the beginning of the universe for 20 years and still doesn't know whether his theory is right or wrong; a researcher who had to come to the conclusion after seven years that he was wrong.
• 8) The Mark: The question of why people want to create, why they fight against time, decay, destruction and death, but also against ignorance, pain, the pride of others etc., poses the film at the end. All people are united by a principle that drives them: I am unique, I am here, I am.

production

Why Man Creates was presented by Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation . Art Goodman created the animation . George Lucas , who was studying at the University of Southern California at the time , worked as a cameraman (second unit) on the film.

Awards

Why Man Creates won the 1969 Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film . In 2002 he was inducted into the National Film Registry .

Web links

• Why Man Creates the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Trevor Hogg: George Lucas ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . emdiv.com.