Tom Lee
In medieval Europe, theater companies put on "morality plays," in which a protagonist encountered personifications of various concepts, showing the protagonist's descent into temptation, his repentance, and finally his redemption. Some might be more familiar with John Bunyan's _The Pilgrim's Progress_ (1678), which is basically a morality play in book form. This film, too, is basically a morality play, with two protagonists, showing one's descent into temptation and final redemption, and the other's initial success but ultimate destruction.Our two protagonists are cowboys, whom I will call Black Hat and White Hat (the film itself gives them no names); they appear together right at the beginning of the film. Black Hat is very sure of himself and worldly-wise, fast and accurate with his gun. White Hat, on the other hand, is not so sure of himself or what to do -- he seems to see Black Hat as a role model, but he emulates Black Hat's cowboy movements only clumsily and is a terrible shot.With the exception of the sky, the film is entirely drawn in black and white: either in black lines on a white background or vice versa. Any shading or gray tones are accomplished by means of hatching with thin lines. This use of only two tones is deliberate and important; a lot can be seen by paying careful attention when something is black or white in this film. Empty bottles are black, while full bottles and the water in them are white. White is the color of energy, fullness, giving, beauty, purity and love. Black is the color of exhaustion, emptiness, taking, lust, depravity and sex (or at least loveless sex). The sky sometimes uses shades of gray, but terrestrial objects and characters are limited to black and white.Black Hat and White Hat are in the desert when the film opens, and we are amply shown that Black Hat isn't very nice to White Hat, but White Hat hangs around him and tries to emulate him anyway. Black Hat then takes him into town, probably to the red-light district, where the scenery grows darker and darker around them and is full of sexually suggestive and borderline pornographic imagery. You can gasp or giggle at the imagery, or you can do the mature thing and realize that, hey, there's a film here, one with a plot and characters.At the heart of the darkness is the establishment of a woman in a black dress, whom I will be calling the Woman in Black. She stands waiting outside her bordello in front of a fire pit on the ground. She is seemingly drawn in white underneath her black hair, lipstick and dress, but she wears these black items like armor and never removes them. Nobody gets in to see the Woman in Black unless he can toss a coin in the air and shoot a hole through the center of it with his gun. She then catches it on her finger like a ring, blows out her fire, and hops inside her bordello. If you miss, the coin bounces off her finger and lands in the fire, burning up. This is the only reason I can think of why this film's title is "Ring of Fire." White Hat doesn't have either the money or the skill, apparently, but Black Hat has both, and he gets in. But although he's drawn to it by her allure, White Hat doesn't like it here and runs away to a place where things are lighter, and there he meets the fourth and final main character of the film.He finds himself on top of a hill, where there is a wooden bathtub and a surrealistically nude woman holding a bucket standing next to it, her hair seemingly made of constantly flowing water that always flows out of the frame -- as the narration says, "beauty from somewhere way beyond." The sky is almost completely white here, and the woman, whom I am going to call the Water Woman, is also entirely white. In fact, when White Hat sits down in the bathtub (fully clothed), and she pours water over him with her bucket, his hat and clothes seem to vanish where the water flows, and he seems to be in a state of bliss. Here is the most beauty and purity that we ever see in the film.Things go downhill from there, though -- she and Black Hat meet, and White Hat tries to save her from him but is too inept and easily distracted to rescue her, and she doesn't realize the danger, until it's too late for White Hat to do anything but help her heal and recover. But Black Hat's lust and greed end up destroying him, as everybody rejects him and he ends up in despair, totally alone.This film tears down the male "cowboy" role model put forth by society and the media, showing it to be hollow and both destructive and self-destructive at its core. But it doesn't do much for female role models, perpetuating almost perfectly the false "madonna/whore" dichotomy that society presents to females. However, because the two cowboys are present from the very beginning, the film is really about them. It's a morality play in which Black Hat's insatiable greed and emptiness leads to his destruction at the hands of Lust and Vice, and in which White Hat's uncertainty and ineptitude lead him into temptation, preventing him from preserving Purity and Beauty, but in the end his good will leads to his redemption.Obviously I found this film very thought-provoking. Perhaps you will find other symbolism in it. It was a surreal experience, and it took some time to make sense out of anything I was seeing. But it is currently playing occasionally on the Independent Film Channel, so if you look you might catch it there and see what you think of it.
MartinHafer
This is one of six films included in the collection "The World According to Shorts". For the most part, this is not a particularly good set of shorts, as I have seen many others with more memorable content than this rather disappointing DVD.This is the only animated film in the set. It consists of black and gray drawings with bizarre characters from the American West in a battle of the sexes--as drawn by someone inspired by Picasso or possibly LSD. There is a plethora of sexual content and imagery in the film--like it was made by a subversive little kid who still isn't too sure about the anatomy of a naked lady! In fact, the film seems to be almost nothing but sexual images, genitalia and breasts--many of which aren't even connected to people. It's all pretty creepy and strange, though I assume that Georgia O'Keefe and Salvador Dali probably would have enjoyed it very much.Overall, I'd say it is an interesting and highly original film that made almost no sense and made my brain hurt. Sadly, this might just be the best film in the collection because at least it held my attention!!
