This short won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Live Action. There will be spoilers ahead:
This short stars Johnny Crawford, best known for his role as Mark McCain on the TV series The Rifleman, as Biily, a young man wandering through his life, daydreaming of the old West and a life he was born too late to realistically have an opportunity to live. He almost lives in his own fantasy world, but the real world keeps intruding.
His landlady wakes him up, in a bedroom where he's surrounded by old western movie posters, he dresses in cowboy clothes and pretends to be a gunfighter. Instead of going to work, he sits and listens to an old cowboy reminisce about the old West. The old timer has given him a pocket watch which he can't even remember needs to be wound occasionally.
Once he does get to work, he walks in like he's headed for a showdown. As he leaves, we learn, not surprisingly, he's been fired. He walks around at various points in the short and his actions and surroundings draw echos of the old West-the sounds of cattle when he walks through traffic, a symbolic "showdown" with a businessman in a crosswalk and so on.
He winds up in an alley, where he gets mugged and robbed, losing the pocket watch. He goes to buy something to drink, trying to engage the girl behind the counter in conversation, but all she's interested in is the money for his glass of whatever. Realizing he has nothing to buy it with, he turns away, embarrassed.
He winds up under a tree, when a pretty girl walks over, wanting to sketch him. It's obvious they find each other attractive, but he starts telling her how she has everything "wrong", instead of complimenting her on her ability. He's so caught up in every detail being just so, he's forgotten the old movie line, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend". The girl becomes bored and irritated at his corrections, makes an excuse and leaves. As she's walking away, he flashes on something, the short goes from black and white to color and there's a wish fulfillment fantasy ending worthy of the Twilight Zone.
This short deserves to be more widely known and seen. Recommended.
This short stars Johnny Crawford, best known for his role as Mark McCain on the TV series The Rifleman, as Biily, a young man wandering through his life, daydreaming of the old West and a life he was born too late to realistically have an opportunity to live. He almost lives in his own fantasy world, but the real world keeps intruding.
His landlady wakes him up, in a bedroom where he's surrounded by old western movie posters, he dresses in cowboy clothes and pretends to be a gunfighter. Instead of going to work, he sits and listens to an old cowboy reminisce about the old West. The old timer has given him a pocket watch which he can't even remember needs to be wound occasionally.
Once he does get to work, he walks in like he's headed for a showdown. As he leaves, we learn, not surprisingly, he's been fired. He walks around at various points in the short and his actions and surroundings draw echos of the old West-the sounds of cattle when he walks through traffic, a symbolic "showdown" with a businessman in a crosswalk and so on.
He winds up in an alley, where he gets mugged and robbed, losing the pocket watch. He goes to buy something to drink, trying to engage the girl behind the counter in conversation, but all she's interested in is the money for his glass of whatever. Realizing he has nothing to buy it with, he turns away, embarrassed.
He winds up under a tree, when a pretty girl walks over, wanting to sketch him. It's obvious they find each other attractive, but he starts telling her how she has everything "wrong", instead of complimenting her on her ability. He's so caught up in every detail being just so, he's forgotten the old movie line, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend". The girl becomes bored and irritated at his corrections, makes an excuse and leaves. As she's walking away, he flashes on something, the short goes from black and white to color and there's a wish fulfillment fantasy ending worthy of the Twilight Zone.
This short deserves to be more widely known and seen. Recommended.