the Aluminum Fowl by James Clauer

I came across this short film on youtube the other day when i was doing my periodic search of things related to Harmony Korine. I like to check up on him because his work is always highly original and severely absurd/insane/hilarious/profound. So when i was on this fan site i came across the video called “the Aluminum Fowl” which he supposedly produced.

This film was directed by James Clauer who worked with Korine on the set of Gummo as a cinemetographer. It follows three southern, rural (as is the case in much of Korines early work) black brothers who kill their time in their suffocating and aimless lives by fighting chickens, or cock fighting. It features a monologue by one of the brothers describing their everyday, their relationships and what makes them all unique. The film is at once very humorous if not borderline exploitative, but at the same too absurd to be and at times truly profound. The film really seems like a direct product of Korine, though apparently he had involvement in the writing or directing of this, so it leads me to believe that these two film makers must influence each other, unless of course one is ripping off the other, which i would be hardpressed to believe, considering they are collaborating.

Anyway, there are scenes which do feature live animal abuse, which I am not sure how i feel about. And it’s also hard to tell if this is entirely fiction or a mix of both fiction and reality, as many of Korine’s films “appear” to be and sometimes are. The more absurd things, like a scene when one character covers his head, car, rooster and everything else with tin foil in order to ward of the aliens seems fictional, whereas the animal fighting scenes seem almost too realistic to be fictional. The characters just seem too relaxed in the environment and too natural around excessive violence.

 

The film just pretty much chronicles the daily life of these boys, climaxing into a shot featuring fields of chicken coops time lapsed with one really great monologue that is just too good to be fiction…or maybe the other way around! Here it is: “It’s kind of like when you realize your life ain’t goin’ no goddamn where. And you can’t get rid of it, cause it’s just too damn hard to swallow.”