Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects

Directed by Stan Brakhage

This begins the fourth chapter of The Book of Film and entertains directly the considerations of chapter two (THE WEIR-FALCON SAGA, THE MACHINE OF EDEN, and THE ANIMALS OF EDEN AND AFTER). Person begins to be defined by what it is not. It might be said that chapter one (SCENES FROM UNDER CHILDHOOD) set forth birth and being, chapter two - consciousness, chapter three (SINCERITY) - self-consciousness; thus SOLDIERS AND OTHER COSMIC OBJECTS begins that strictly philosophical task of distinguishing (from, in this case, the rituals and trials of public school). I like to think of it as a work that Ludwig Wittgenstein might have found more enjoyable. Soldiers and Other Cosmic Objects (1976) is largely concerned with the children’s experience and navigation of the larger social world. Consisting of a series of short contrasting vignettes, the film begins with the warm depiction of a home’s interior in which a child arranges toy figurines into grid-like military arrangement.