7362 (1967) User Reviews

At times, mind-blowing!

[planktonrules · 26 April 2012]

This 10 minute short film is from "American Film Treasures/Avant Garde Film: Disc 1"--a compilation of mostly forgotten art films of the 20th century. This DVD set is NOT for the casual viewer and sometimes I wonder why I watched the films--as some of them were VERY artsy and weird!

Pat O'Neill created this art film. It begins with two black circles appearing to roll back and forth towards each other while Geiger Counter-like sounds are heard. What happens next is VERY hard to describe...so I won't even try. All of the motion is very rhythmic and looks a lot like film negatives and Rorschachs come to life. Weird, but I really would like to know how O'Neill created these effects using, what you eventually see, are human bodies. Odd but not without some merit...and completely impossible to rate. If you into artsy stuff, I highly recommend it--it will, at times, blow your mind!

Brilliant and unsettling

[JohnSeal · 10/10 · 1 November 2012]

I'm not sure how I'm going to fill up ten lines writing about this film, but here goes: 7362 is everything an avant-garde film should be. Not only is it visually impressive, it's also deeply unsettling. I have no experience with psychedelic drugs, but watching this film gives me an inkling (I think) of what a bad LSD trip might look like: I felt my heart rate increasing and I became quite nervous whilst watching 7362. None of this, by the way, is a bad thing! As an extra added bonus, the startling visuals are accompanied by a disturbing but entirely appropriate electronic score co-composed by Joseph Byrd, a member of the groundbreaking group The United States of America. I'm surprised there's no mention of this in the booklet that accompanies Treasures IV: American Avant Garde Film, nor is it referenced in his Wikipedia entry. Well, look at me: I not only managed to meet the ten line requirement, I exceeded it by four! I must be tripping.

A movable Rorschach test

[classicsoncall · 4/10 · 27 October 2017]

This film's odd title comes from the film stock used to produce it, a high contrast black and white Kodak film to which color was added. Once the opening black and white sequences turn to varying hues, it becomes a fluid array similar to a lava lamp, with many images symmetrically produced to resemble a Rorschach test. One can note repeated sexual imagery as it progresses, and once, quite by accident when I paused the film to grab a cup of coffee, the still that was captured was quite demonic in appearance. I was unable to tell if that was intentional or not because the images move too quickly to discern anything specific. Like a lot of the offerings in the 'American Film Treasures/Avant Garde' series, this film appears to have no purpose other than to illustrate director Pat O'Neill's creative energy. 'Creative' might be a loosely applied term here; with most of these films, one walks away feeling nothing at all.