The Big Shave (1968) Poster
MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 1,781 this week

The Big Shave (1968)

 -  Drama | Short  -  October 1968 (USA)
7.0
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 7.0/10 from 2,660 users  
Reviews: 19 user | 8 critic

In the process of shaving, a young man cuts himself. A lot.

Director:

Writer:

Stars:

|
0Check in
X Beta I'm Watching This!
Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
If your account is linked with Facebook and you have turned on sharing, this will show up in your activity feed. If not, you can turn on sharing here .
0Share...

Quick Links

Explore More
Show Less

Related News

Before They Were Famous: The Short Films of Well Known Directors
| GeekTyrant
Suicide Scrawl: Nicholas Ray's "We Can’t Go Home Again"
| MUBI
Lars von Trier To Remake The Five Obstructions With Scorsese
| HeyUGuys.co.uk
See all 19 related articles »
Create a list »

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

top 500 movies of all time, and not just hollywood blockbusters
a list of 479 titles created 10 Jul 2011
 
CUT TO: FILM
a list of 2031 titles created 15 Aug 2011
 
Crew 013: My Favourite Martin Scorsese Films
a list of 53 titles created 12 Jul 2011
 
martin scorsese
a list of 6 titles created 2 months ago
 
MyMovies: 2012
a list of 294 titles created 02 Jan 2012
 
See all related lists »

Connect with IMDb

Share this Rating

Title: The Big Shave (1968)

The Big Shave (1968) on IMDb 7/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of The Big Shave.
Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 












Cigarettes & Coffee

Tramway
◄ Prev 6 Next 6 ►

0 Next »
Film (1965)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

A twenty-minute, almost totally silent film (no dialogue or music one 'shhh!') in which Buster Keaton attempts to evade observation by an all-seeing eye. But, as the film is based around ... See full summary »

Director: Alan Schneider
Stars: Buster Keaton, Nell Harrison, James Karen
0 Next »
I'm Here (2010)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.8/10 X  

A young man faces the abrupt loss of his friend.

Director: Spike Jonze
Stars: Andrew Garfield, Sienna Guillory, Annie Hardy
0 Next »
Nocturne I (1980)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.3/10 X  

It's night. Perhaps after a dream of an intruder crashing through a window, a woman who's sensitive to light has a telephone conversation with a friend. The woman has a plane ticket from ... See full summary »

Director: Lars von Trier
Stars: Yvette, Solbjørg Højfeldt, Anne-Lise Gabold
0 Next »
Dog Star Man: Part III (1964)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  

Sexual intimacy. Three kinds of images race past, superimposed on each other sometimes: two bodies, a man and a woman's, close up, nude - patches of skin, wisps of hair, glimpses of a face ... See full summary »

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: Jane Brakhage, Stan Brakhage
0 Next »
Rabbit's Moon (1950)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

Pierrot waxes romantic, entranced by the moon. Harlequin appears and bullies him, then uses a magic lantern to project an image of Columbine. Pierrot tries to court the illusory Columbine ... See full summary »

Director: Kenneth Anger
Stars: André Soubeyran, Claude Revenant, Nadine Valence
0 Next »
Darkened Room (2002)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 5.7/10 X  
Director: David Lynch
Stars: Jordan Ladd, Etsuko Shikata, Cerina Vincent
0 Next »
Charlotte and Her Boyfriend (1960)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.6/10 X  
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Stars: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anne Collette, Gérard Blain
0 Next »
Dog Star Man: Part II (1963)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

A man, accompanied by a dog, struggles through snow on a mountain side. We see film stock blister; drawn square shapes appear. Then, we see an infant's face. The images of struggling ... See full summary »

Director: Stan Brakhage
Stars: Stan Brakhage
0 Next »
Wasp (2003)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.4/10 X  

Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. ... See full summary »

Director: Andrea Arnold
Stars: Natalie Press, Danny Dyer, Jodie Mitchell
0 Next »
Gasman (1998)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.7/10 X  

It's the Christmas season. With her mom's help, Lynne, a girl of perhaps eight, dresses up; her younger brother Steven plays with a toy car. The children leave with their dad, who's ... See full summary »

Director: Lynne Ramsay
Stars: Lynne Ramsay Jr., Martin Anderson, James Ramsay

Cigarettes & Coffee
0 Next »
Cigarettes & Coffee (1993)
Drama | Short
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.9/10 X  

Five people's lives that are curiously intertwined happen to all be at a diner at the same time. An old man (Hall) gives advice to a young man (Baltz) about his cheating wife and best ... See full summary »

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars: Kirk Baltz, Scott Coffey, Miguel Ferrer

Tramway
0 Next »
Tramway (1966)
Short | Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.3/10 X  

A boy shyly watches a girl on a tram. Only when he exits the tram, and its too late, does he realize that he must meet her.

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Stars: Maria Janiec, Jerzy Braszka
Edit

Cast

Credited cast:
Peter Bernuth ...
Young Man
Full cast and crew »
Edit

Storyline

This short film is a metaphor for the Vietnam War. A man walks into a meticulously clean and sterile bathroom, concentrating on the polished porcelain and shiny metal motif. He then proceeds to shave. When his face is clean, however, he only continues to shave until he pierces through his skin. Blood covers him and falls around him, the red contrasting the perfect spotlessness of the bathroom. Written by Joseph D. Guernsey

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

blood | shaving | three word title | razor blade | independent film

Genres:

Drama | Short

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Release Date:

October 1968 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

The Big Shave... or, Viet '67  »

Filming Locations:

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Color:

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

Whiteness - Herman Melville See more »

Connections

Referenced in A Healthy Smile (2009) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.

User Reviews

 
Scorsese's bloodiest film
26 September 2005 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

The ritual of shaving and it's risks is explored by a young Scorsese. Surely every man has felt the fear/temptation of cutting one's self with a razor. A typical outlet for his self-loathing Catholic guilt, the gore is contrapuntally balanced by incongruous music on the soundtrack. Bunny Berigan's "I Can't Get Started" recalls the blackly comic ending to "Dr. Strangelove" with "We'll Meet Again" accompanying images of nuclear holocaust. Strangely, the young man in the feature is not in need of a shave in the slightest. And he shaves a second time in a row, the second time with bloody consequences. As other reviewers have posted, there may be some symbolic significance to this short film. Knowing Scorsese, it undoubtedly operates on many levels. It is to his credit as a filmmaker that he is able to make a solitary, mundane task so attention-grabbing.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?
Review this title | See all 19 user reviews »

Message Boards

Recent Posts
If Scorsese didn't make it gmcookvt
Where can I see it? manderf
I fainted! Dangergrouse
The Bottomline storm_420
is all of the blood real? jbeine
genius David-Napolitano
Discuss The Big Shave (1968) on the IMDb message boards »
Getting Started | Contributor Zone »

Contribute to This Page

Write review
Create a character page for:
?