what was the point.

The us involvement in Vietnam at the time

Maybe it has to be seen in context?

(I'll say SPOILER ALERT - even though the movie is only six minutes long)


I saw it yesterday for the first time in a theater that was showing several short films from the 60s. I'd never seen or heard of it before, simply a title card that said "The Big Shave - Director Martin Scorsese." When he reached into that medicine cabinet for his razor, I *knew* what was coming next. (My whole adult life, I've been using those plastic Gillette razors. My grandfather died about 10 years ago and he used one of those so-called safety razors, just like in the movie - I thought as a tribute to him, I would shave with his razor and with the first stroke sliced the hell out of my face!) With everything so gleaming white and going into it knowing that Martin Scorsese was the director, I just knew there would be blood everywhere before long.

By the time it was over, I just thought of it as a soon-to-be-famous film student playing around with special effects and found myself wondering how they did it. Was it a special razor handle filled with fake blood that squeezed out like a syringe? Was the actor's face covered with a thin layer of flesh-colored plastic with fake blood capsules underneath?

Later on, I wondered several times if there was a deeper meaning but didn't dwell on it. Then I came here and learned it was a metaphor for the Vietnam War. OK, it all made sense in retrospect but I sure didn't see it at the time.

I find myself wondering if I would have "gotten it" had I seen the movie in 1966 as a young man with no clue as to who the director was instead of seeing it 50 years later as a middle-aged one with an inkling of what was to come?