The Dead

My dad used this exact same 2spooky effect and footage in a Halloween video he shot when I was like three years old. It was set to "Thriller."

Once again, this man impresses me with his unique vision. This is a remarkable experimental short that reflects in a most fascinating manner on mortality. This one, like all of Brakhage's films that I've seen to date, is like a revelatory religious experience or an acid trip without the acid, whereby I find myself transfixed, worshiping at the altar of art and wowed at the seemingly most mundane things. This is, indeed, the power of great film, and great art in general.

Left pretty much no impression on me. The images were murky and there's no soundtrack so there really wasn't anything to hold my attention through the emptiness.

I didn't connect with it that much. It seemed kinda sloppy and random.

positives and negatives of churches and graveyards. not without interest.

Employs, at times, a neat superimposition effect that makes it look like the image is coming apart at the seams. Otherwise my least favorite Brakhage so far. The most obvious interpretation purely from the film's content isn't insightful in the least, and no further understanding came to me on subsequent viewings.

Imitates the perception of a dying man having an odyssey through a river like Styx or Ganges which leads him to death with the scattered pale images of a dying perception.

Cinematographically, it's on point, the contrast between the blue and white give it a deep mournful feel, along with the footage of cemeteries. Unfortunately, this is filled with mostly inappropriate footage that has little to do with this sort of death-obsessed mood this short initially set up for itself, and a lot of this footage isn't compellingly shot.