Powers of Ten (1977) Short Film

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A scientific film essay, narrated by Phil Morrison. A set of pictures of two picnickers in a park, with the area of each frame one-tenth the size of the one before. Starting from a view of the entire known universe, the camera gradually zooms in until we are viewing the subatomic particles on a man's hand. (imdb)

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Cast and Information

Directed By: Charles Eames, Ray Eames

Starring: Philip Morrison

Genre: Documentary

Country: USA

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Powers of Ten belongs to 16 collections

1. Female Directors (collaborative: moderated by djross - 90 stars)

2. Embedded Short Movie (collaborative: moderated by Vandelay1 - 61 stars)

3. National Film Registry (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)

4. Best of criticker: Documentary (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 20 stars)

5. Ephemeral films (collaborative: moderated by Hailey - 6 stars)

6. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)

7. Brief Encounters (collaborative - 3 stars)

8. Documentaries about physics (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)

9. Best of criticker: Short (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 2 stars)

10. DtC Doubling the Canon 2022 Nominees (collaborative: moderated by lineuphere - 2 stars)

11. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)

12. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)

13. Experimental films concerning math or the hard sciences (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)

14. PeaceAnarchy's film of the year (public: PeaceAnarchy)

15. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 19 (public: PeaceAnarchy)

16. Strange films for backing (public: JSchlansky)

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Date	User	Rating
Sep 26, 2020	Obdurate	85 _80th
Really cool to know how this was done back in the 70s. Intelligent, good visuals, good music. Too smart for this guy! Makes you feel both small and huge, depending on where you are in the film.
Oct 21, 2018	auhasarderik	8 _79th
Never seen it until now. Boy my education system sucked.
Sep 20, 2016	Neonman	71 _41st
Neat. As fascinating as things can get, though here is a film that ought to be remade.
Apr 25, 2016	Suture Self	9 _91st
I remember this blowing my mind in elementary school. I like the longer title: "Powers of Ten: A Film Dealing with the Relative Size of Things in the Universe and the Effect of Adding Another Zero"
Apr 25, 2016	Anomaly	85 _85th
Effectively dramatizes the immense range of scale that the universe encompasses.
Mar 13, 2016	Goldbluming	85 _76th
Hypnotic
Sep 14, 2015	dardan	76 _81st
Too bad I have already seen better versions of this that came out decades later, though I am still amazed every time I am confronted by such scope.
Jul 30, 2015	FoxyRussian	78 _36th
Pretty interesting and watched it countless times in school. But since it's science focused, I have to be critical on the cameras used to film this, they have really showed their age. And I always found zooming in had so-so transitions
Jul 30, 2014	DMCrimson	77 _38th
Sportcaster narration aside, it's a neat way to show the complexity of the universe.
Jun 27, 2014	JSchlansky	80 _77th
Absolutely the most hip-happeningest flick of the 70's
Dec 12, 2013	karamazov.	60 _80th
Classic.
Aug 17, 2013	Moribunny	75 _84th
Impressive.
Apr 25, 2013	mattorama12	80 _89th
I love this. The incomprehensible smallness and bigness of the world is captured here about as well as it could be done.
Jul 15, 2012	forehead1	70 _87th
Short film exploring the scale of the universe from largest to smallest with the ol' zoom-in/out trick. You can find much better versions of this online these days, but it's still worth ten minutes of your time.
Apr 18, 2012	SirStuckey	50 _23rd
Nerd Porn.
Dec 13, 2011	Noblet	85 _84th
I can't get enough of stuff like this.
Mar 29, 2011	PetrosTser	60 _40th
Technically amazing but a bit tiring after nine minutes.
Dec 17, 2010	Rufam	65 _42nd
Visually impressive and thought-provoking, although the concept gradually wears off.
Nov 18, 2010	djross	70 _76th
Very effective use of cinematic means to convey the sense of bigness and littleness.
Dec 18, 2009	QuickyAPI	79 _81st
Great movie that gives you just a little hint of how expansive the universe is and how small the particles are that we are built of...
Aug 26, 2009	Ocelot	80 _89th
I remember this from 8th Grade Science class.
Aug 22, 2009	annie	70 _70th
they made parody of this, called The Powers of Ten Parody, funny...
Aug 03, 2009	grimsooth	68 _71st
We may be pretty big at the 1 meter scale, though it's just about the only one we can comprehend. This short film tries to change all that.
Jan 05, 2009	Quicky	82 _86th
Great movie that gives you just a little hint of how expansive the universe is and how small the particles are that we are built of...
Nov 22, 2008	Shmendrek	4 _83rd
Saw this in an astronomy class my sophomore year of college. Pretty darn cool, and educational!
Jun 01, 2008	PeaceAnarchy	95 _99th
A really fascinating little documentary. It's short, full of interesting little tidbits, has nice narration and cool to look at as well.
Jan 26, 2008	Stain	80 _68th
Weren't we all shown _Cosmic Zoom_ when we were in elementary school? This may be the first-ever remake of a short. Pretty damned good in its own right, too
Sep 13, 2007	Nouilles	90 _85th
Interesting.
Aug 04, 2007	owen1218	90 _95th
Fascinating stuff.
Jan 17, 2007	MartinTeller	85 _84th
An oddball chicken soup of geography, astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and just a dash of philosophy. It makes ya think. Elmer Bernstein's groovy, trippy synthesizer score is fun too.

Average Percentile 72.13% from 297 Ratings