Holiday from Rules? (1959)
1959 · Ephemeral film · 10 min · dir. William H. Murray
- Short
Synopsis
Four children, about eight to ten years of age, sit around a nearly empty set complaining about all the rules they must follow - whether from parents, teachers, or other adults. An off-screen narrator invites them to imagine a place with no rules, and they're transported to an island of the imagination. They're excited at first, but as they try to play games, explore, gather shells to make a necklace, get food, attend to an injury, and eat, they find that life without rules is more than difficult.
Synopsis from OMDb
Details
- Director
- William H. Murray
- Writer
- William H. Murray
- Released
- 1958-01-01
- Running time
- 10 minutes
- Language
- English
- Collection
- Prelinger Archives
Subjects on the Internet Archive
- Social guidance
Cast & crew
- William H. Murray Director
Reviews on the Internet Archive
★★★★ · HARSH! · Spuzz · 2003-07-23
Another interesting surreal film from Portafilms, who I never heard of til I watched 'Helping Johnny Remember' a few days ago. This one follows the same surreal shooting style as Johnny, but is a lot better told. 4 kids are frustrated by the amount of rules they are faces with from day to day. Again, an off camera narrator badgers the kids and asks what if we made believed that they were on an island and that there were no rules. So they do that and they're on an 'island'. and "Let's just say they're sharks in the water". The kids decide to play 'Follow The Leader' but quickly falls apart…
★★★★ · surreal · Karma Hawk · 2005-03-27
this film stars four children who are sick of rules, it is produced by the same company that made "Helping Johny Remember" and it was most likely shot in the same dark studio (now however with palmtrees) the film starts with four kids reciting rules and it only get's more bizzare from there. At the climax of the film one of the boys falls down from a palmtree and since they don't have any doctors one girl rips off his shirt to make a cast (one has to wonder how effective a cast made out of a former shirt will be however) then one of the girls proclaims she is going swimming (the water however…
★★★★ · "If we are to have any fun, we better have some rules!" · Steve Nordby · 2003-11-30
My earlier review of this film sucked, so here's the rewrite. God the narrator interrupts some kids who are complaining about the rules at school to offer them an imaginary place where there are no rules. So it's off to a "Lord of the Flies" tropical fun spot - or at least a stage with a black backdrop and cardboard cutouts of big ferns. The rules of the English language follow them to this rule-free place, but other than that it's no games because games have rules, and they fight and steal and do unsafe things because people only respect each other and cooperate and care about safety when…
