The End1953

"An experimental film unique in its liberal inter-cutting of color and black-and-white sequences and in the employment by its poet-maker of sections containing sound only, to deliver what he feels to be an important message. In form the film consists of five episodes dealing with five different people, each seen on the last day of his existence. These episodes are linked by the sound-only sections, and the whole is capped by a lyric code." –Film-Maker's Cinematheque "San Francisco beat poet Christopher Maclaine made only four films, but the longer two are among the greatest and most original I've ever seen. Rarely screened, perhaps because of their crude, homemade look, they have an emotional and spiritual authenticity few mainstream films can match. THE END, running 35 minutes, tells the stories of seven people on the last day of their lives (most of them are preparing to kill themselves, but the world is also about to be annihilated by the Bomb) with a mix of black humor and bizarre twists. The editing and Maclaine's narration are constantly veering off in unexpected directions, replicating the disordered thoughts of a person on the brink; during one particularly jumbled sequence of images, he invites us to make up the story." –Fred Camper, Chicago Reader