Watching 1914 slow-mo in Marvels of Motion: A

I found myself staring at this 1914 short for way longer than I expected. Marvels of Motion: A is basically just people messing around with cameras before there were rules about how to do it.

If you are into the history of how we got "bullet time" or why we love slow-mo replays in sports, you will dig this. If you need a plot with characters and feelings, you are going to be bored out of your mind within three minutes.

It is really just a series of clips showing horses and dogs doing things. But the slow-motion makes a horse's gallop look like it is floating through water. 🐎

There is this one dog. It leaps through the air, and in slow motion, its ears flap around like they have a life of their own.

I swear the dog looks surprised to be off the ground for that long. It is the kind of small detail you only catch when the film is literally dragging its feet on purpose.

Allan McDonald, who put this together, clearly thought reverse-motion was the pinnacle of comedy. Watching things un-fall or un-jump never gets old for him.

The rodeo acts are where it gets a bit chaotic. You see these cowboys doing tricks, and when it is reversed, it looks like they are being sucked back onto their horses by a giant magnet. 🧲

It is funny because this feels so much like a modern YouTube "Satisfying" compilation. Human nature hasn't changed much in a hundred years; we still just like watching stuff move weirdly.

I actually liked this more than some of the scripted stuff from back then, like maybe It's No Laughing Matter. At least this doesn't try to teach you a lesson.

The print I saw was a bit grainy, which actually helps the "vibe." It makes the trick photography feel more like actual magic rather than a technical glitch.

One specific shot of a horse jumping over a fence just stops. It doesn't really conclude, it just... ends. 🤷‍♂️

I wish there was more of the rodeo stuff, honestly. Some of the horse segments go on a bit too long and you start counting the pebbles on the ground.

But then a dog appears again and you are back in. It is a very simple pleasure.

If you have seen The Fairylogue and Radio-Plays, you know how experimental this era was. This is just the "sports" version of that weirdness.

Don't expect a masterpiece. Just expect some old-school visual tricks that still kind of work if you turn your brain off.

Things I noticed:

• The horses look way more muscular when they move that slow.
• The reverse-motion parts made me laugh out loud twice.
• There is a lot of dust in 1914. Like, a lot of dust.
• The film title is a bit of a mouthful for what it is.

Maybe skip this if you hate silent films, but for everyone else, it is a neat five-minute distraction. It feels like looking at a moving photo album from someone who just discovered a new toy.