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[claudia westermann]

http://www.cadrage.net/films/bigshave/bigshave.html



http://www.wam.umd.edu/~molouns/amst450/italy/scorsese.html

Can "The Big Shave" be seen as an anti-Vietnam film, as Scorsese suggests?

The film starts out simple enough - doing a routine thing - shaving. 
The man does it every day (presumably) and is just going about his 
normal activities. So, too, was the United States (or so they 
thought) going about routine actions. Through the 1940's - 1960's 
(and all the way through Reagan at least, if not more) America has 
believed they had the right to install the governments they wanted 
when they could. The US also, in a way, believes it has the duty (the 
right) to "protect" other countries/governments.

However, things go terribly wrong. The man begins to bleed profusely. 
America, after 1968 or so, really began to lose the war. Casualties 
were at an all-time high while morale (on the front and at home) was 
at an all-time low. Things weren't working.

The man continues to shave, feeling that if he just perseveres, it 
will all work out. Instead of stopping the war, the US sends more 
boys to give their lives for a lost cause. It just won't work.

As I was watching "The Big Shave", I (and probably many of my 
classmates) asked "Why doesn't he stop and fix himself?" Scorsese was 
asking with this film "Why doesn't the US stop and fix itself?" The 
US got consumed by something and didn't do the logical thing when it 
had the chance. And what it was left with was a mess.