''Box Head Revolution'' is a 2002

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

, directed, produced, edited and co-written by Mark Christensen.

Plot

On an unknown planet in an uncertain time, a two-tiered society has taken shape. The

ruling class In sociology, the ruling class of a society is the social class who set and decide the political and economic agenda of society. In Marxist philosophy, the ruling class are the capitalist social class who own the means of production and by exten ...

live above ground and wear masks on their faces, while the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

labors below the surface of the planet. The lowest order of the underground culture – prisoners, revolutionaries and various troublemakers – are forced to wear boxes locked around their heads. One day, an alien craft crashes on the planet. Gritt (Adom Cooper) and Brythle (Jenny Kim), a pair of rebellious young lovers from the upper tier of the planet's society, discover the wreckage. Unknown to them, the wreckage is a

Voyager program The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two robotic interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable alignment of Jupiter and Saturn, to Flyby (spacef ...

space craft that was launched from the United States. in the 1970s. Within the wreckage is a long-playing gold album featuring

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

of the 1970s. Despite the efforts of the ruling class to destroy this album, the young lovers are able to broadcast the music to the planet's oppressed masses. With this musical discovery, the planet faces a sudden and unstoppable turn of events that brings about the eponymous

uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

.New York Times review
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Production and reception

''Box Head Revolution'' was the filmmaking debut of Mark Christensen, who was a dancer, a pilot, a two time world champion skateboarder, One of the first innovators of the Snow Board, and a musician before turning to cinema production. In the film’s press notes, he stated he turned to filmmaking because he felt "it would be easier to communicate his ideas through film rather than struggling with a song." ''Box Head Revolution'' was shot on a very low budget in black-and-white 16 millimeter film, and the cinematography was intentionally out of focus.

Dave Kehr David Kehr (born 1953) is an American museum curator and film critic. For many years a critic at the ''Chicago Reader'' and the ''Chicago Tribune,'' he later wrote a weekly column for ''The New York Times'' on DVD releases. He later became a c ...

, reviewing the film for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' noted, “Mr. Christensen's use of very blurry black-and-white video serves a double purpose. It disguises the complete absence of sets while lending the film the quality of decaying contraband from the indefinite past.” ''Box Head Revolution'' had its theatrical premiere in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on August 21, 2002, and reviews were mixed. Edward Havens, writing for the online magazine FilmJerk.com, stated the film "is the most audacious directorial debut to invade American cinemas in a very long time. It's not the best film debut, nor the best looking or most intelligent. And the funny thing is, after watching the film, I don't think Mr. Christensen cares if you like it or not." David Sterritt, reviewing the film for ''

The Christian Science Monitor ''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...

'', commented that the film's "story is almost incoherent, but there's a weirded-out charm to Christensen's visual style – part

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

, part ' Captain Video,' part early

David Lynch David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...

– all as hazy as a half-remembered dream." But Ken Fox, writing for

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

Online, noted: "The onscreen text is riddled with typos, the migraine-inducing B&W photography is often over-exposed and out of focus, the post-synchronized sound is badly looped and Christensen himself can be heard directing his actors. Adventurous — and forgiving — lovers of strange celluloid could do worse. Others will no doubt find the whole experience the longest 76 minutes of their lives." And Shaun Sages, writing for the Movie Navigator online site, found the film to be "weirder than anything you’ll stumble upon watching 4 a.m. Sci Fi Channel programming."Movie Navigator review
To date, ''Box Head Revolution'' has not been commercially released on DVD.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://web.archive.org/web/20080121144149/http://www.filmcrash.com:80/mattpages/boxhead.html, Box Head Revolution
''Box Head Revolution'' in the Internet Movie Database
2002 films 2002 science fiction films 2000s dystopian films American black-and-white films American rock music films Films about revolutions Films about social class Films set on fictional planets 2000s English-language films 2000s American films