Even Dwarfs Started SmallLike a demented cousin to "Animal Farm" or "Lord of the Flies", Even Dwarfs Started Small is a tale of a group of dwarfs (yes, that is the preferred plural, unless you're talking "Lord of the Rings") at some type of institution who stage a riot or a kind of semi-violent overthrow, trapping the "instructor" (Pepi Hermine) inside an administrative building. The instructor has apparently taken one of the revolting dwarfs' allies hostage, a fellow tied to a chair named Pepe (Gerd Gickel), who contributes only compulsive laughing in fits. The dwarfs begin to cause a varied amount of havoc and destruction, seeming to celebrate more than express actual anger.
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The film begins with a shot of Hombre (Helmut Döring), the smallest in stature, seated with some kind of mugshot id plate, though he struggles to figure out how to align the item. Hombre would almost resemble Bob Newhart, if he were two feet tall, and prone to bouts of irrepressible, nervous laughter at the drop of a hat at the most absurd of things...like a camel, or burning flowers. Hombre and his revolutionary comrades start disassembling the institution, smashing dishes across the campus, and fixing a motor van to run in circles, while they leap about it in unsafe ways. The dwarfs seem to be stricken with some kind of madness--all of them--that causes them to act in a bizarre fashion, having conversations that make no sense, and appearing incapable of rational problem solving behavior. Take for instance when Hombre tries to jump onto a bed, but only lays a few magazines down as a springboard. The kind of manic madness that drenches the film resembles a bunch of kids on a sugar high, including episodes of racing around pestering the two blind dwarfs, poking without understanding at a pig that has suddenly died, and causing a food fight in lieu of actually eating. One might think the instructor would have a better control for his faculties, but in truth, he is just as mad as they are--he just happens to be inside the relative safety of his sanctum.
Even Dwarfs Started Small is a strange film, with long shots of repeated action, as though the film itself were stuck in a state of mental illness, obsessively focusing on repeating action--just like the constant unmanned circular maneuvering of the truck in the quad. The film is often grotesque, with the diminutive dwarfs--deprived of select social graces--engaging in unusual behavior, such a throwing chickens through windows into the instructor's office. Director Werner Herzog has developed a track record for films that are unsettling and feature potentially disturbing content. Even Dwarfs Started Small is no exception to that--even if my only evidence to that claim was the brief scene involving one of the dwarfs exhibiting her bug collection, where each bug is dressed up in wedding clothes. One might believe that the dwarfs are a rarity, and that somewhere, elsewhere, there are "taller" people. However, maybe in the world of this mad film, this is the standard. Take when about halfway into the film, a woman drives up looking for directions--a dwarf herself. In the back of our minds, we might be expecting that Hombre and friends are being managed by people just like us, as is the case with the film's prologue between Hombre and an unseen figure. But in reality, there is nothing to suggest that in the world of Even Dwarfs Started Small that there are any alternatives. This film exists within its own unique microcosm of strange and bizarre actions, recorded like a documentary, while the chaos ensues, manifesting as an unsettling and disquieting view into a surreal world where these pint-sized reflections of our basest instincts flourish.
Recommended for: Fans of distinct and strange midnight movie material, with lots of unsettling action and interaction between the dwarfs and their environment...even if it is just tearing it down.
Even Dwarfs Started Small is a strange film, with long shots of repeated action, as though the film itself were stuck in a state of mental illness, obsessively focusing on repeating action--just like the constant unmanned circular maneuvering of the truck in the quad. The film is often grotesque, with the diminutive dwarfs--deprived of select social graces--engaging in unusual behavior, such a throwing chickens through windows into the instructor's office. Director Werner Herzog has developed a track record for films that are unsettling and feature potentially disturbing content. Even Dwarfs Started Small is no exception to that--even if my only evidence to that claim was the brief scene involving one of the dwarfs exhibiting her bug collection, where each bug is dressed up in wedding clothes. One might believe that the dwarfs are a rarity, and that somewhere, elsewhere, there are "taller" people. However, maybe in the world of this mad film, this is the standard. Take when about halfway into the film, a woman drives up looking for directions--a dwarf herself. In the back of our minds, we might be expecting that Hombre and friends are being managed by people just like us, as is the case with the film's prologue between Hombre and an unseen figure. But in reality, there is nothing to suggest that in the world of Even Dwarfs Started Small that there are any alternatives. This film exists within its own unique microcosm of strange and bizarre actions, recorded like a documentary, while the chaos ensues, manifesting as an unsettling and disquieting view into a surreal world where these pint-sized reflections of our basest instincts flourish.
Recommended for: Fans of distinct and strange midnight movie material, with lots of unsettling action and interaction between the dwarfs and their environment...even if it is just tearing it down.