{"id":44558,"date":"2024-07-19T19:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T23:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44558"},"modified":"2024-07-19T19:59:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T23:59:02","slug":"the-bootleg-files-the-magic-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/19\/the-bootleg-files-the-magic-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: The Magic Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 872:<\/strong> \u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d (Academy Award-winning short film about sculptor Robert Gilbert). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>On YouTube. <\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO:<\/strong> None.
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\nREASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:<\/strong> <\/strong>It fell through the cracks.
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Unlikely.<\/p>\n

Making a nonfiction film about a visual artist is always a tricky proposition. After all, the finished product is often a work of genius but the process of bringing it to fruition is frequently a tedious process. And truth be told, not every visual artist is a magnetic raconteur or a force of personality.
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\u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d comes close to capturing the spirit and energy of a visual artist \u2013 in this case, Robert Gilbert, a sculptor who sourced scrapyard throwaways and turned this waste into kinetic works of art \u2013 literally, the magic machines of the title. Gilbert serves as the narrator to this 15-minute portrait of his life and work \u2013 and while his narrative skills are a bit fey by contemporary standards, it fits where the artist was during 1969 when the film was released.<\/p>\n

We first see Gilbert dragging a small kiddie wagon along a road in what looks to be a Southwestern setting. The soundtrack is filled with a music box rendition of \u201cOver There\u201d while Gilbert appears to be a hairy hippie shoehorned into denim overalls. He identifies himself as a 25-year-old who \u201cscraps together the leftovers of our society, puts them together in an artistic way.\u201d He visits a scrap dealer in the desert named (I believe) Walt Pickle and picks up various objects for his art. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a child that never grew up,\u201d says Gilbert in a soft, juvenile voice that seems to be at odds with his appearance. He acknowledges working at a multitude of jobs \u2013 one might assume these odd labors help him finance his sculpting career, but he never overtly acknowledges that as a fact. Indeed, Gilbert\u2019s backstory is elusive \u2013 the viewer is never cued to his upbringing, education, or his artistic prominence by the time the film was first screened. Instead, we get canned platitudes such as \u201cWork\u2019s a great thing. I believe in work and pleasure\u2026I think conscious work is the only really self-satisfying thing there is on Earth beyond sex, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert admits that most of his sculpting is mostly done by welding, but he claims he goes into a trance when creating his sculptures and often wonders \u201cwho made them\u201d after the works of art are completed. \u201cThey\u2019re kind of there and they happen,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d \u2013 its complete on-screen title is \u201cThe Magic Machines and Other Tricks,\u201d but that moniker is rarely used in connection to this production \u2013 deserves credit for showing Gilbert in the process of creating his work. The work appears to be laborious and far from glamorous, but the results of his efforts are presented in a whimsical manner. In one sequence, Gilbert goes for a walk and appears to be followed by one of his sculptures, which uses the parts of discarded bicycles to follow him with the devotion of a loyal puppy.<\/p>\n

Throughout \u201cThe Magic Machines,\u201d Gilbert\u2019s works are unveiled with the accompaniment of a music box soundtrack. On one hand, it captures the childlike innocence that Gilbert is trying to present in his deceptively simply but genuinely complex creations. On the other hand, it trivializes Gilbert\u2019s work, as if marginalizing him into a folk art niche rather than being considered as a serious sculptor creating complex works that incorporate engineering into imagination. <\/p>\n

One segment involves the creation of a sculpture inspired by the violence surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but Gilbert\u2019 sing-song voice in the narration and his resulting sculpture seems to trivialize the anger and passions that scalded Chicago in that overheated summer (which is seen in fleeting news clips).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this magic show,\u201d Gilbert says in his narration at the film\u2019s conclusion. \u201cSome people live in this magic show. Some people are this magic show. Some people wonder what magic is. And still, others know.\u201d These pearls of wisdom are on the soundtrack as Gilbert climbs a hill into a sunset vista before disappearing from view. Who knows what he means \u2013 in 1969, this kind of stuff passed for profundity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d was directed by Bob Curtis and co-produced by Joan Keller Stern. The Internet Movie Database has no further credits beyond this film for Curtis, while Stern is known primarily for a small role in the cult film \u201cSpider Baby.\u201d Gilbert would later transition from art into successful careers in architecture and boat building and racing \u2013 he passed away in 2015.<\/p>\n

Columbia Pictures acquired the theatrical rights to \u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d and arranged for it to be screened with its counterculture hit \u201cEasy Rider.\u201d In 1970, the film won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and that year it was Oscar nominated for the Best Documentary Short Subject and it won the award as Best Live Action Short Subject \u2013 short nonfiction films were eligible for the Live Action Short Subject honors until the 1971 \u201cSentinels of Silence\u201d won both the Live Action and Documentary prizes for shorts, at which point the Academy segregated nonfiction short films into the Documentary category.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Magic Machines\u201d is on YouTube in unauthorized postings \u2013 the film was never commercially released on DVD or Blu-ray.<\/p>\n