This short film has a lot going for it. It has Coleridge, Gustave Dore and Orson Welles, which is a quite wonderful combination. Orson Welles reads the poem in great style. He truly had an amazing voice. The director, Larry Jordan has animated the engravings that Gustave Dore made for the Ancient Mariner. So you get a chance to see Dore's wonderful art with cut out animation. Larry Jordan does not overdue the animation, he lets the illustrations and words do most of the work. Jordan changes the colors, pans the camera around the drawings and presents strange sea creatures. It is a very nice way to discover the poem as well as being a nice piece of animation. I found the video in my library, put out by Facets Video, so there is a chance you can find it.
3 Reviews
Jordan is a fine visual designer, but nothing more.
jahremusic-5866225 November 2022
There are some excellent resources here. Coleridge provides the story and words. Welles provides the narration. Dore provides the illustration and visuals.
So you'd think with such talent backing this project that the director would find something to say with everything available to him. Unfortunately, that is the problem with Jordan. He often draws from great sources, but has nothing to add to them.
If you've read the poem and seen the lush illustration, then there's little to draw from watching this. There's no experience or perspective to be gained.
Jordan is a competent visual designer, but if you are looking for art that communicates ideas or tells its own story, he has nothing to offer.
And perhaps design is enough for the projects that Jordan creates. But it would be disingenuous to describe it as art or experimental. Such things require substance.
So you'd think with such talent backing this project that the director would find something to say with everything available to him. Unfortunately, that is the problem with Jordan. He often draws from great sources, but has nothing to add to them.
If you've read the poem and seen the lush illustration, then there's little to draw from watching this. There's no experience or perspective to be gained.
Jordan is a competent visual designer, but if you are looking for art that communicates ideas or tells its own story, he has nothing to offer.
And perhaps design is enough for the projects that Jordan creates. But it would be disingenuous to describe it as art or experimental. Such things require substance.
There's a fable that remains absolutely modern
jgcorrea19 April 2021
A sailor kills an albatross for no reason. He then suffers from physical, spiritual and mental anguish: it is his punishment. The other crewmembers are allowed to die just to excuse what he did, but death seems an easier punishment than the ¨life-within-death¨ which the protagonist is condemned to endure. This anthological poem deals with the consequences of unnecessarily harming a creature of nature. New Zealand critic Tui Allen called our attention to the final verses, which emphasize the message: ¨He prayeth best, who loveth best all things both great and small; for the dear God who loveth us he made and loveth all.¨
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