Tuesday, August 08, 2006
"This is going to turn into a snuff film."
Once upon a time, a fertilizer salesman named Hal Warren decided to become a filmmaker. With a crew of college students, a cast of community theatre actors and models, and a hand-cranked 16mm camera that didn't record sound and which only filmed for 30 seconds at a time, Hal went to work on his opus: Manos, the Hands of Fate. The film had a theatrical run of about 6 seconds and was tossed onto the celluloid trash heap, until Mystery Science Theater 3000 dug it up and gave it the shredding it so deserved.
There's a funny thing about MST3K; y'see, the creators knew that they had a fan base that loved the show, and actively encouraged the sharing of episodes. Up until the fifth season (when their lawyers told them it might be construed as piracy), the creators had a message in the end credits that told fans to "keep circulating the tapes." Well, now that we've gone all digital, tapes aren't the preferred medium of sharing things.
And, with that lengthy and overdrawn explanation, I give you... Manos: the Hands of Fate, on YouTube, in ten parts. Enjoy.
There's a funny thing about MST3K; y'see, the creators knew that they had a fan base that loved the show, and actively encouraged the sharing of episodes. Up until the fifth season (when their lawyers told them it might be construed as piracy), the creators had a message in the end credits that told fans to "keep circulating the tapes." Well, now that we've gone all digital, tapes aren't the preferred medium of sharing things.
And, with that lengthy and overdrawn explanation, I give you... Manos: the Hands of Fate, on YouTube, in ten parts. Enjoy.
