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1979-01-01
N/A
13 min
This Oscar-nominated documentary short tracks the shift in the relationship of an individual to his work between the 19th century and today. Focusing on how nails are made, we first see a blacksmith laboring at his forge, shaping nails from single strands of steel rods. The scene then shifts from this peaceful setting to the roar of a 20th century nail mill, where banks of machines draw, cut, and pound the steel rods faster than the eye can follow.
Yes, I know it probably shouldn't be, but this is actually quite a fascinating documentary about the production of the common or garden nail. Starting with the most rudimentary of skilled black-smithery, we follow the industrial processes that create these essential items of just about every size imaginable. Some of these procedures are more manual than others, but the sheer size of the operation to smelt and coil and cut and hammer these objects on everything from mass production lines to those manufactured using a small smithy and an anvil are included, illustrating well just how essential these sharpened bits of metal are to just about everything we build. You can almost smell the molten metal, and the repetitive thrusting of the machinery churns them out by the million, if not billion. Nails notwithstanding, this is an impressive look at the power of mass-scale engineering and is passes ten minutes effortlessly, too.
