Ruptured Review: The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes

THE ACT OF SEEING WITH ONE'S OWN EYES


Country of origin- U.S.A
Year of release- 1971
Director- Stan Brakhage


The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes is a 32 minute long silent experimental documentary film, that was filmed in a Pittsburgh morgue and shows real autopsies performed on actual human cadavers. Some of you might be thinking this is just another cheap nasty shockumentarie or a mondo film, well it's not, it is in fact an intelligent art film that is attempting to examine the subject of human mortality, and in my opinion it succeeds. The first thing you notice about the film is its complete lack of music and sound, which gives the film a surreal and at times almost ethereal feel. The complete lack of any kind of audio really allows you to focus on what is happening on screen. At first we see the pathologists simply examining bodies, and taking measurements of the joints. Once these examinations have been made the autopsies begin. This is by no means the first footage of autopsies I have seen, but this is the first I have seen without any kind of narration or music, which gives you a real sense of claustrophobia while watching it.  As you watch the human body being deconstructed like some sort of complex machine, you develop a sense of just how short life really is. Up until very recently these where; walking, talking, breathing, thinking people, and now they are just meat and are being treated as such. 


I came away from the film with a positive feeling, I know that sounds strange but I really did. The film shows you that death is inevitable, and that we should be aware of just how fragile are body's are, because in the end, we are just meat. I know that doesn't sound like the kind of thing to be positive about but I was, the film gave me a sense of we should enjoy the life we have, while we can, because it could all end tomorrow. I am going to give this film 8/10, it really achieved what it set out to do. I don't recommend this film for people who are disgusted by the site of real human gore, but if you can cope with the site of real human death and are interested in the subject of mortality, then I encourage you to watch this film.