Watch KEEPING THINGS WHOLE

Unlike the world wars and Korea, not many films have come out of the murderous fatigue of Viet Nam. Perhaps that's because it's not easy to make a film about a difficult, complicated war. Ask director Walter Ungerer. He set out to make his first theatrical narrative film about the decision facing a conscientious American youth when he is drafted, complete with follow-through battle scenes, war wounds, and screaming bullets. Five years, miles of film and twenty-nine thousand dollars later, he has given us KEEPING THINGS WHOLE (KTW), an eerie and ultimately terrifying documentary trip through others' vision of one human pawn's mind. All without a single bullet fired. Although he is infrequently seen on the screen, Arthur, the hero of KTW (played by Columbia University student Arthur Albert), is drafted and unsure about what to do. Slowly we are introduced to three sets of characters whose decisions ultimately determine the course of Arthur's resolution to his dilemma, and thus to his life. First comes a group of non-Americans. Then there is a second group consisting of actual friends, family and acquaintances of Arthur the actor. Finally the third group appears, an intriguing cross-section of Americans: teeny boppers, suburbanites, Green Berets, an artist and a Spanish American War veteran. The final solution is brought about by bringing the non-Americans together in an auditorium, showing them all the previously shot footage, and asking them to vote on what they think Arthur should do. Filmed mostly in black and white with color emphasis, KTW is always moving. It encircles the audience with intense faces, designs, occasional splotches of patterned color, sights and sounds emanating from the myriad of sources: nature, movements and shadow shapes. Ungerer never tells us how to think; instead he shows us that we think in accordance with the outside forces which manipulate our life. Harry Lohr, Filmmakers Newsletter