Swat That Fly

In the nascent flicker of 1917’s cinematic landscape, Dave Fleischer’s 'Swat That Fly' emerges as a frantic, ink-drenched meditation on human futility. The plot, stripped of all extraneous narrative fat, centers on a singular, obsessive pursuit: a man’s increasingly deranged attempt to terminate a persistent housefly. What begins as a minor domestic irritation rapidly devolves into a choreographed ballet of destruction. The protagonist, a caricature of early 20th-century middle-class stability, finds his dignity eroded by the diaphanous wings of a dipterous insect. As he lunges, misses, and inadvertently dismantles his own environment, the film transcends its slapstick roots to become a visceral exploration of the 'man versus nature' trope. The animation, characterized by the Fleischers’ signature fluid kineticism, transforms the fly into a metaphysical antagonist—an untouchable ghost mocking the heavy-handed clumsiness of its human hunter. It is a primitive yet profound display of the 'Out of the Inkwell' philosophy, where the line between reality and drawn chaos is perpetually blurred.