Fast, Cheap and Out of Control

An animal trainer, a gardener specialised in converting yew hedges into animal figures, an expert in the field of mole rats and a robot technician are the protagonists of Errol Morris's playful philosophical exercise about the relationship between man and animal, culture and nature. Morris himself describes his film as a story in four parts about the Sisyphus myth, but fast, cheap and out of control particularly demonstrates affinity with Albert Camus' interpretation of the Greek mythological figure as an absurd hero, instead of the tragic figure who was forced to day after day roll a rock up a hill, which due to its weight rolled back down as soon as it had reached the top. In his essay 'Le mythe de Sisyphe' Camus described the Sisyphus personage as someone who passionately endures his torment. With equal passion Morris's protagonists tell about their missions: taming the untameable 'wildebeest', controlling the growth of a plant - this is the dilemma: the plant is growing constantly, because as soon as it stops growing, it will die -, classifying an animal species which is modifying itself and adapting to his environment permanently, and putting together robots that can imitate animal movements. Erroll's cinematographic essay has been constructed with a great sense of the carnivalesque and the absurd.