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EAT
DIRECTOR: ANDY WARHOL
STARRING: ROBERT INDIANA
DIRECTOR: ANDY WARHOL
STARRING: ROBERT INDIANA
Andy Warhol's 'Eat' is not a film. 'Eat' does not have a plot, character development or even any dialogue and one cannot view it with the expectation of it having these features. 'Eat' is more or less a moving photograph, rather than being restrained by a single still frame Andy Warhol has decided to allow the event depicted to continue. 'Eat' is really little more Robert Indiana eating a peach, followed by mushrooms, but in my mind it contains so much more.
The truth about 'Eat', for me, was that when simply sitting and viewing it I was surprised that I wasn't bored by it. To many people watching a 40 minute video of a man eating may seem daunting, and rightly so, but, if you feel so inclined, then it is something you must do.
To me art is something that is open to interpretation and so, I, along with every other viewer, have an interpretation of 'Eat' to offer. To me it seems to play on commercialism, and the fact that every process (including eating) has been commercialized, the process of film making included. As I continued to watch 'Eat' my mind began to unconsciously drift, thinking about Robert Indian, this man, who was eating a meal right across from me, and in doing so realized how little I knew about the people around me, and how little can actually learn. The deepest secrets of ones heart are never so and so we can never truly know anyone.
Finally as Indiana finishes his mushroom he seems so content, and so, the final message I left with was the way we rush ourselves. It is incorrigible that we will always need to be somewhere else, but the least we can do is try to enjoy what we are doing, while we are doing it. To be satisfied in the moment, rather than worry about the next. It is the very nature of life itself that makes us worry about tomorrow, because time doesn't stand still as it does on film. This I gathered from 'Eat', Andy Warhol was able to capture the moment, which in itself is an illusion.
Perhaps I took more away from 'Eat' than it had to say, perhaps less, or a different meaning entirely, but this is what I took away from it, no more, no less. 'Eat' is something that needs to be seen, not by all, but by some. The viewing experiance of 'Eat' will be different for everyone, it will simply depend on the nature of the viewer.
The truth about 'Eat', for me, was that when simply sitting and viewing it I was surprised that I wasn't bored by it. To many people watching a 40 minute video of a man eating may seem daunting, and rightly so, but, if you feel so inclined, then it is something you must do.
To me art is something that is open to interpretation and so, I, along with every other viewer, have an interpretation of 'Eat' to offer. To me it seems to play on commercialism, and the fact that every process (including eating) has been commercialized, the process of film making included. As I continued to watch 'Eat' my mind began to unconsciously drift, thinking about Robert Indian, this man, who was eating a meal right across from me, and in doing so realized how little I knew about the people around me, and how little can actually learn. The deepest secrets of ones heart are never so and so we can never truly know anyone.
Finally as Indiana finishes his mushroom he seems so content, and so, the final message I left with was the way we rush ourselves. It is incorrigible that we will always need to be somewhere else, but the least we can do is try to enjoy what we are doing, while we are doing it. To be satisfied in the moment, rather than worry about the next. It is the very nature of life itself that makes us worry about tomorrow, because time doesn't stand still as it does on film. This I gathered from 'Eat', Andy Warhol was able to capture the moment, which in itself is an illusion.
Perhaps I took more away from 'Eat' than it had to say, perhaps less, or a different meaning entirely, but this is what I took away from it, no more, no less. 'Eat' is something that needs to be seen, not by all, but by some. The viewing experiance of 'Eat' will be different for everyone, it will simply depend on the nature of the viewer.
***1/2 (3 1/2 stars)
Nathaniel M.
Last edited by Nathaniel_Mc; 08-25-11 at 06:32 AM.
