Customer Reviews

The Way Things Go [VHS]

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The video is approximately 30 minutes of non-stop motion showing cause-and-effect. The background is an old factory and there is no music score or narration, just the real sounds of the fire lighting, of things dropping down and rolling, etc. A very active imagination (or imaginations) thought up the ideas of what would roll, drop, ignite, etc. to make the next thing happen. The recording is a bit amateur and sometimes the lighting is a bit dim, but the content is so fantastic and real but it doesn't matter to our family because we love it.

My family began watching this when our youngest was nearing two years old and my oldest was four: both were glued to the screen. My husband and I enjoy it as well. Our four-year-old was so inspired he wanted to create a similar and large set-up (with fire and everything) in our home! I was able to convince my son that we could not do a large set up with fire, etc. so while I was busy makign dinner, on his own he made a chain-of-events set-up out of wooden unit blocks and wooden cylinders, and toys that would roll. He called me to see his demonstration and then we had discussions about ideas of what would work, tried them and then brainstormed other ideas when it did not work. I was surprised at the creative thinking this video inspired in my four-year-old.

I am just amazed at the creativity and imagination at work in this video and that such a huge project was set up and obviously practiced many times to ensure that it would work as it was being filmed.

This is entertainment and education rolled into one. This is a welcome change for children to watch from the usual children's video programs that are available (although it is for people of all ages).

You really have to see this one to believe it. The spinning bag unwinds its tether and gradually descends. At some point, it reaches down to a balanced tire, and gives it a gentle push ...

For about the next half hour (it seems like a lot more), each object in the chain bumps into the next, pulls the support from under it, launches a bottle-rocket into it, or somehow kicks off the next step in the chain. There must be hundreds of steps, involving flame, weighted cylinders rolling up hill, and a few episodes of oozing spooge.

The presentation is very plain, just the documentary of this incredible sequence chaining cause to effect. There is no sound track except for the noises made by the parts of this wild "machine". Even the parts themselves look like nothing special: teapots and tires, soda bottles and sugar cubes. It's the action that counts, and the time and creativity that brought it into being.

Perhaps the creators cheated at a few steps. There are some cuts in an otherwise continuous stream of action. If some purist lets that interfere with their enjoyment of the spectacle, it's their loss. If someone wants a "point" to the sequence, that's not my problem. It just is, and it's wonderful.

The Way Things Go (1987) aka Der Lauf Der Dinge (perhaps loosely translated from German meaning The Laughing Dingo...okay, maybe not...the German I learned in high school didn't take very well) is an odd and wonderful film that I think would be well served shown in the various science and art classes one often has to take during ones stint in receiving a basic education.

In an old warehouse, artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, who must have pillaged a local junkyard, create an extensively elaborate set up involving tires, chairs, rocket tea kettles, spray bottles, sugar cubes, old shoes, wooden ramps, small carts, garbage bags, balloons, fireworks, pools of liquid (sometimes flammable), gelatinous goo, along with other common, household items, with a result that I can only describe as a wondrous adventure in `planned chaos'. I used to do a similar thing with dominoes, spend hours lining hundreds of them up, only to watch them all fall within a matter of minutes, but this is so much more. Fischli and Weiss use all forms of matter, fire, water, and gravity to effect the forward motion (illustrated by transformations, propagation, reactions, and kinetics) of contraptions and such, resulting in constantly evolving concept of one thing leading to another, or, to put it another way, an artistic representation of cause and effect. I say it would be useful to show this in school science classes, as it's an implicit demonstration and display of the laws of thermodynamics, and presents the material in such a way that one may forget they're actually learning something, being mesmerized by the events occurring on the screen. It could also me a valuable tool in an art class, as it shows the simplistic beauty that can be drawn from very commonplace objects arranged in such a way to illustrate lifecycles through normally inanimate objects.

I enjoyed this short piece a lot (it runs 30 minutes), as I found myself constantly trying to guess what was going to happen next (synapses firing...mind stimulated...brain functioning...), and often trying to figure out what just happened. Most of the time the events were relatively easy to follow, but ingenuous in their simplicity. The camera work here is strictly for utilitarian purposes, following the seemingly constant reaction (the spark of life, if you will) and there is no music, but only the occasional sound effect from the noisier reactions. I do agree with some of the other reviewers that there may have been some cheating going on here (`hands on' manipulation), as sometimes the camera moves forward when a particular reaction seems not to have produced the intended result, but often, during the more precarious events, the artists appeared to have understood the possibility of failure, and worked contingencies within the set up. Even if they did supply some assistance in the form of tricky camera work, I'm willing to cut them a great deal of slack as it's the ideas presented within that I found fascinating, the intricate, linear chain of events that must have taken a great deal of time to plan, test, and produce.

As I said, the feature piece runs 30 minutes, and there are a couple of extra features like biographies of the artists and a little text regarding the actions in the film. I would have liked to see a little more, perhaps a scientific commentary track delineating the principals involved during the sequences within the film, but maybe it's better there's not one, as it may pique someone's curiosity enough to try and learn more about it for themselves. I am interested in some of those chemical reactions, specifically the ones that created a great deal of foam, as I often find myself in need of ideas for practical jokes (leave it to me to take something beautiful and twist it for my own, devious means). The price seems a bit hefty for the DVD, but the replay value is here, so I think I'll get my moneys worth.

Cookieman108

If you've read the other reviews you already know what this video is about. What I'd like to add is that I am amazed every year that my sixth graders watch this video, with no dialogue or music, and are enthralled with it for the full 30 minutes. I show it after we've done an extensive motion and energy unit and simple machines unit. Before watching it I explain 3 or 4 reactions that they may not get on their own, which piques their interest. It is the one video they remember years after leaving 6th grade!

I'm buying this because I lost the copy I recorded from television 12 years ago!

This film is an extremely imaginative course of physical events arranged in a Rube Goldberg type of chain reaction... using a the entire variety of physical states: solid, liquid, gas, and transitions between them, to keep the reaction going. Use it to stimulate the imagination of youngsters, or to interest them in physics, but make sure that they understand not to play with fire the way it's played with in this video!

Note: Please leave "Der Lauf der Dinge" in the summary... your search engine couldn't find this phrase, and it's the name that most people use for this video.

first saw this on PBS, then in my art class.....an amazing video....a simple chain reaction of fire, water, bubbles, garbage bags, tires, etc....definately an obscure german film, but who cares? the film is mesmerising....shot in an old factory and set up with old, household items (as well as some non-household chemicals), this film has a very industrial feel to it (heightenend by the bad lighting in some shots).....the continuance of the chain reaction is very surreal...a must see

I saw this video at the the museum of modern art in Siena, Italy; not only was it worthy of being included in a museum, it was one of the most involving pieces in a very good collection. The video depicts the operation of a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg installation of devices which sequentially drown, melt, set fire to, and otherwise irreversibly trigger each the next. The timing is suspenseful, the soundtrack is subtle, the devices are baroque, and the result is compelling and enthralling. This video will appeal to your inner child, your inner minimalist, and your inner pyromaniac; but it will terrify your inner tube.

"For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion." If there has ever been a question as to weather or not these two sayings are true, "The Way Things Go" has answered it. I to stumbled upon this show late one night while sitting in my friends apartment flipping channels. I sat mesmerized with my jaw dropped as I watched. The channel was raising money and was offering the video for a $120 donation. If the video had not been offered elsewhere (like on Amazon), I would have paid it. That is how amazing this video is! I cannot wait to see the whole thing and share it with friends and family. A must see!

If you ask them nicely, the nice people at Honda will send you a free DVD of their acclaimed two-minute commercial Cog for the Honda Accord. Watching it back-to-back with The Way Things Go is an illuminating experience, working out exactly which bits of TWTG 'inspired' the corresponding scenes in Cog.

A sequence of counterweighted wheels running up a slope -- check. Rolling objects slowed by a thin layer of viscous fluid -- check. A slow-moving object knocks levers that give it extra energy -- check. And there are many more.

Cog is a great commercial. The idea of having all the pieces in the sequence be parts of the Accord was brilliant. And it's slick and perfect where The Way Things Go is rough and ready, chaotic and a little bit insane. None of the polished metal and smooth movement that sells cars for this piece of German engineering. Instead TWTG uses household objects, ladders, old tyres, bits of wood, kettles and nails, chemicals and fireworks. TWTG's miraculous engine does its job and falls apart -- spectacularly.

Sadly it's no longer true to say that there is no other film like The Way Things Go. But it's still the original, and still the best. And there's no cunningly hidden CGI in this one.

I love this film! My best friend turned me on to part of it on VHS from a PBS station in NYC in 1988, and I've been looking for it ever since. This finally came available in the fall of 2006, and I promptly went out and bought seven copies (yes seven!), to give to my very best friends for Christmas. It's that good. My only disappointment is that the DVD doesn't include a making-of feature. Everyone I've shown this to has speculated on just how they accomplished this, I'd love to know exactly how they did it! Still an essential disc. Well recommended.