Barney's Rubble


The Order - From Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle 3. If you're like me, you'll ignore the complaints about this DVD and buy it anyway. Don't. Perhaps rent it (just to tick the 'I've seen it box'), as one reviewer suggested but honestly your time would be better spent doing some more interesting like breathing or mating socks.

I just can't sum it up with ordinary words like 'dull' 'uninspired' or 'disappointing.' It's worse than that. It inspires apathy. I can't even drum up enough enthusiam to hate it - it's that bad.

I won't bore you with too many the details - the tap dancing Playboy bunnies that only know one step, the endlessly climbing man (who cares about a man on a rope?) and the other clowns.

If there were something to get here, I would get it. And it's not for not trying. I was so convinced that there must be 'something' to this that I watched every last frame - twice. You might think that's crazy (especially those of you who have seen it), but as it's suppossed to be an interactive DVD, I was sure that I'd missed something. Anything. But, no. There is nothing here - not humour, drama, action - just nothing at all.

If Barney is "The most important artist of his generation' (this simply isn't true) let's just pray the next generation has something (anything?) better to offer.

Excellent for Matthew Barney fans


The Order - From Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle 3. I saw the actual work in New York at the Guggenheim and this is an excellent companion piece.
Of course, it's no Drawing Restraint...

not a substitute for the real thing


The Order - From Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle 3. This is not a release of Cremaster 3 but instead a small section of the film. Although there have been rumors of a release of the actual full length Cremaster films for years now, it seems much more likely that, as another review notes, Barney and Barbara Gladstone ultimately decided that, since they had sold a small number of dvd copies as very limited multiples at ghastly collector's prices, they would not release an affordable version for the masses because it might devalue that original limited edition. If this is their approach, then so be it. By not doing a general release that ordinary people might be able to afford to buy or rent, they have decided to limit the audience for Barney's work only to those who are lucky enough to be able to see a Cremaster or Drawing Restraint showing at a museum or cinema near to them or those tiny few numbers of supercollectors for whom money is pretty much meaningless. The rest of the public should follow their lead and refuse to purchase this or any other "excerpted" versions of Barney's work and pay them back in kind. Art should not be the exclusive domain of an elite. If artists insist on making their work difficult to see or accessible only to the powerful or wealthy, then the rest of us should ignore it and let it disappear.

Don't look for a DVD set anytime soon (or anytime at all)


The Order - From Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle 3. My main point in writing this is to counter the spotlight review that gives false hope of a Cremaster Cycle DVD set release. I am also taking the opportunity to comment on Barney's reasons for not releasing the films commercially. This is based on my personal research and I hope it's useful to some that may spend long hours trying to find any news of a possible DVD release as I did.

Matthew Barney has stated many times that he will never release his films on any form of mass media. His reasons have the do with the physical sculptures that he sells. He sees them as limited edition art objects and, therefore, to reproduce them would be wrong. I believe he produced six laser disc copies of each of the five films, which sold in elaborate sculptural cases. He is allowed to circulate prints for massively expensive screenings as major museums, but he feels it would be wrong to duplicate his art work.

I see it from a more economical standpoint. His films are incredibly expensive to produce and they're all privately and personally funded. Why settle for $20s per DVD when you can get hundreds of thousands for each museum screening? Perhaps it's a mixture of both. But, why use the medium of film for something that six people get to personally enjoy? We have that expectation with a painting or a photograph, but the medium of film lends itself to mass duplication. Besides that, any film employs many many individuals (actors, technicians, etc.) and it really seems like a huge waste of effort if it's going to such a limited audience. Some composers write totally uncompromising music with almost no commercial appeal, but they still disseminate them through traditional means. It's not as if no one would buy these.

I respect Barney for sticking by his ideals, but I wish he would let the rest of us in on his work. As I write this review in early 2007, the films are currently playing in Germany. It's not like most of us can drop everything and fly over there to check them out. They haven't been in the states for a while and who knows when they'll be back?

I'm giving the DVD five stars based on the small part that I've experience both there and through some of his massive picture books. I wish I could say I've seen them all, but then again, I'm supposed to be reviewing the DVD itself - the product you can actually buy.

"Art" from another pretentious Yale grad with no connection to reality...


The Order - From Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle 3. This review is for Cremaster 4 & 5, although I can't imagine that 3 would be any better... Cremaster 4 (and 5) might have been tolerable if the running time had been cut in half. Let's just say that this "film" wore out it's welcome very quickly. All one has to do is watch the "trailer" on Barney's website to get the point. There is art, and then there is crap. Cremaster is pure, unfiltered garbage. References to human reproduction (genitals, sperm and ovum) aside - this non-feast for the eyes was pompous, annoying, and the intentional grossness is demonstrated through the use of excessive slime, Vaseline, and globs of mucous encased gonads. Cremaster 5 has a higher production value, but is equally uninteresting, laborious, and tiresome. I can appreciate the absurdity behind the work of artists such as Damien Hirst - the dark humor and wit, a connection to substance abuse and death - the darker side of life that many can relate to and others can appreciate. Barney makes a living out of creating "art" that seemingly has no connection to anything of value. A pretentious load of bull. But then again, he did go to Yale.