Dog Star Man: Part IV

*My rating and review of Prelude, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 is the same* Simultaneously travelling through the solar system and cell system without bearings and guided only by a man and his dog. Brakhage throws images at you at such a rate that he is always a split second ahead of your capacity to process these images in an interpretative way, which leaves you with just impressions, but as you soon realise these impressions are highly stimulating and you crave more.

This is better than Star Wars.

It's hard to judge this without acknowledging that the parts leading up to it affect your mood by the time you get to it, but it was a fitting though not particularly satisfying conclusion to the experience.

Amazing to watch solely on the basis of the various techniques Brakhage helped pioneer (e.g., superimposition, rapid cutting) and take to their formal limits, all of which have had a profound impact on film aesthetics in the decades since its creation. The complete absence of sound allows for greater contemplation of the images shown, becoming a sort of antithesis to oral storytelling; here, we create the sounds in our head. *I AM RATING EACH PART THE SAME, AS I RATE 'DSM' AS A SINGLE FILM*

a redux of the universe! life is finished, creation is destruction. rawr. ranked as one film.

Rating reflects all five sections overall. Fantastic conclusion informed by the content of all previous parts. The final product is an engaging and accomplished film executed with style and eventual clarity where it counts. An ideal introduction to avant-garde film.

These things just keep getting better. This final installment is like a culmination of all the previous ones. We've got the man in the snow, babies, gore, sexuality and cosmic imagery all packed into a frantic, climactic 5 minutes. A great end to a fascinating film.