The Lift (1972) User Reviews

Student film by Robert Zemeckis

[raymond-andre · 5/10 · 28 April 2010]

Short film written and directed by Robert Zemeckis in 1973 when he was at USC. It shows style and control, but has a flimsy, unengaging story, unlike his "A Field Of Honor" which is commercially available on the same DVD.

Shot in black and white and featuring an original jazz score, The Lift tells a man versus machine story.

Shows some of his later conceits. The opening is a process montage sequence similar to the ones he effects in the first minute of Back To The Future. The sense of dark irony is something that resurfaces in Zemeckis' later work.

Quite dull really

[bob the moo · 31 January 2014]

For some directors it is really quite interesting to look back and see what they did before they got famous – for example Steve McQueen's art installations are interesting to view in the context of how he directs in films such as Hunger and 12 Years a Slave. However it other cases it is just a curiosity to see student work and think to oneself about how a very successful mainstream career came after such an unmemorable student film. In case you can't guess, the latter is the case with Robert Zemeckis' first student film here.

Shot in dialogueless black & white with a jazz score, it is the story of man versus machine, in this case a man going to work having to deal with an elevator. In terms of plot it doesn't really do much and lacks a specific direction – it doesn't play particularly to comedy, to horror, to tension, to thoughtfulness etc. Instead it tells the story and Zemeckis seems to be more about technique, framing etc than he is about telling a good story in an engaging way. Worth a look for big fans of Zemeckis or for students struggling with their own films and wondering if they can ever progress, but otherwise it is quite a dull film that I doubt I'll remember a week from now.

A man and his lift

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 5 May 2016]

You can probably already imagine some of the plot points here even without seeing this 7-minute movie. Lifts in films frequently involve people getting stuck and this is no difference here. But there is a bit more to it. The writer and director is the famous Robert Zemeckis, lead actor is Michael Fuller. As this one is already almost 45 years old, Zemeckis was only 20, so I guess you can forgive him for this being a truly mediocre film. It was never dramatically relevant or really entertaining in my opinion. Fuller tried his best, but also he could not make the script work. One problem was that the film needs over 2 minutes until something really happens and these first two minutes are not exactly character elaboration either. Just a man doing boring stuff. Overall, this one is worth seeing for Zemeckis completionists only. Everybody else can skip it.

Cool comedy short

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 23 July 2019]

A harried working man (Michael Fuller, who kind of looks like Paul Bartel) has his daily routine disrupted by an uncooperative elevator. Writer/director Robert Zemeckis astutely captures the frantic hustle and bustle of modern life as well as shows how man's reliance on technology tends to add to his anguish and frustration rather than detracts from same. In addition, there's a wickedly amusing sense of pitch-black humor evident throughout, with the last gag in particular rating as a brutally funny punchline. Shot in stark black and white, with no dialogue and a groovy jazz score, this short provides an interesting inkling of Zemeckis' considerable talent and grasp of dark irony.