The Batmen of Africa
Last year we chanced upon a TV showing of "Fast, Cheap and Totally out of Control," a 1997 film. We moved, drew air, etc. But in 2003 it continued to haunt. The pic is by Errol Morris and it carries forward parallel stories of an African Mole Rat specialist, a sculpting gardener, a lion tamer, and an M.I.T. roboticist. One wag opines that the film defies one-line summary, but then comes close with this description of "Fast Cheap and Totally out of control: [It is is in part] a darkly funny contemplation of the Sisyphus-like nature of human striving."
We try and we try and we try. Don't ask why. We try to tame lions - or at least fashion their behavior to be entertaining to circus others in stints. We try to understand mole rats. We clip apiary hedges until they resemble giraffes. Storms take down our clipped sculptures, and we start over.
What really got my attention though was the films interspersing of parts of a much older film. This was known to me as The Batmen of Africa [also sometimes known as Darkest Africa]. It starred famous lion tamer Clyde Beatty, was Republic Pictures' first serial, came out in 1936, and - on a personal note - it formed the basis for one of the first fully formed poems I ever wrote.
In Leonard Maltin's movie book it is described this way: "Diverting cliffhanger of Beatty leading expedition to jungle city to rescue captured white girl. Good special effect, primitive acting."
Something about the serial got me. These stories when glued together offer one epiphany after another. It gets senseless to the point that it starts making a stranger sense. When I saw it, circa 1967, the nostalgia, camp and put down crazes had all arisen, so I am sure they fed into my view of the flick. But there was something about Clyde, ever chasing the girl in some celluloid darkness with ancient artifacts that made me try and write. Read poem.
10:13:41 PM 
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