Bale

A fort of bales of straw made by three boys. A group of teenagers and their cruelty. The result of game. And the remorses. The end , as moral lesson. Beautiful cinematography, minimalist plot, nice performances , right message. A film proposing not exactly a lesson but support for reflection. Convincing for minimalism and for the force of image. And, sure, for the feel of reality and inspired use of symbols.

This short film does one thing and it does it reasonably well, and this is to show the difference between being a child and being childish. The plot sees 3 young boys building a fort out of bales of straw only for a group of those in their late teens turn up to have their own kind of fun.

The film shows the youngest characters having reasonably clean simple fun and contrasts this with the older group who are using drugs, drinking and engaging in more cruel types of fun at the expense of others. The difference is made even starker when certain actions result in potentially more serious outcomes. In making this contrast the film labors a bit and even at 11 minutes it feels like it goes on longer than it needed to. It has a nice sense of foreboding that builds pretty well but has the downside in that you pretty much know where it is going and this combines with the slow, overlong feel, to reduce the impact of events. The cast are fine if a little stiff within the film and generally the choice of shots was OK but nothing to really make note of.

Overall Bale has a simple point to make and makes it, however it is sluggish and a bit obvious in making it and it doesn't really linger in the mind.

This is a short, quintessential battle-of-the-generations film. Both sides of the "gap" were realistically portrayed and the situation marginally real at least in its inception if not in its outcome. The boys and girls used their real accents (amateurs??) but the dialogue was not difficult to decipher for anyone unfamiliar with native British dialects. The consequences of thoughtless actions (the difference between "child-like" and "childish") were nicely portrayed but I'm not sure I like the ending. See for yourself if you can find it. Worth a watch. If I'd been casting/directing this film I would've had more interaction between the two groups and perhaps more focus on the innocence of the younger boys.