They're Made out of Meat

June 24, 2006 8:42 AM

They're Made out of Meat. A short story by Terry Bisson (discussed earlier) has been adapted to the very small screen as a short film.
posted by CrunchyFrog (32 comments total)

Hah, that's suprisingly good.
posted by delmoi at 8:57 AM on June 24, 2006

Cute! But the pacing is super terrible. Reads snappy on the page. Extra laborious onscreen here.
posted by damehex at 9:14 AM on June 24, 2006

Bisson once gave a talk where I went to college. A very literary minded friend of mine (a guy who loves language, and poetry, and reading them aloud) went up on stage with Bisson to read this story. Nothing, not even this short film, has ever touched how fantastic my friend and Bisson read it together. It's one of those moments that after it has happened you look back on it and appreciate it tremendously.

I'm sure Bisson has done it before, but it's one of those moments where the two right people at the right time doled out the dialogue perfectly. You could tell Bisson loved the read of it too. :)
posted by smallerdemon at 9:15 AM on June 24, 2006

I liked it
posted by caddis at 9:37 AM on June 24, 2006

It's a shame that they edited the dialogue. I think that they took out some of the best parts. Still, surprisingly good.

"We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

They shouldn't have taken those out.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 9:46 AM on June 24, 2006

I thought it was good . I wished they could have used the line "Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."
posted by Staggering Jack at 9:46 AM on June 24, 2006

The soundtrack is awesome. I watched it twice just for the music.
posted by potch at 9:48 AM on June 24, 2006

The short story is always better than the short film, it seems, but it's always good to see meat do well.
posted by BillyElmore at 10:22 AM on June 24, 2006

Meatfilter.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:05 AM on June 24, 2006

But the aliens are meat...
posted by A189Nut at 11:11 AM on June 24, 2006

It's time to meet the meat!
posted by blue_beetle at 12:07 PM on June 24, 2006

my favorite line......."They talk by flapping thier meat at each other"
posted by BillsR100 at 12:47 PM on June 24, 2006

"You're riding in the Cash Cab!"
posted by Thorzdad at 12:52 PM on June 24, 2006

I agree that the pacing is terrible. Damn you, Tom Noonan!
posted by shmegegge at 12:53 PM on June 24, 2006

But the aliens are meat...

Yeah, that kind of ruins it. When they are sitting there dicussing the way the meat makes sound, they are already doing just that in their (presumably fake) human bodies. It's much funnier to imagine two pure energy beings sitting comfortably in their ship, discussing the meat beings.
posted by Potsy at 12:57 PM on June 24, 2006

I was thinking the same kind of thing, Potsy. I think I would have done the film in voice-over style, and not shown the aliens at all.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 1:31 PM on June 24, 2006

What's up?
posted by blasdelf at 2:42 PM on June 24, 2006

"The aliens will contact us when they can make money by doing so." -- David Byrne
posted by neuron at 3:15 PM on June 24, 2006

If they have a word for meat, then they must already be familiar with some kind of animals. In which case, they would compare our capabilities not with the intermediate* material we're made of, but rather with those animals with which they're already familiar.

*Intemediate meaning in this case more specific than "matter", or "carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen", but less specific than "bone, sinew, muscle, organs".
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:18 PM on June 24, 2006

Not necessarily, George_Spiggot. Maybe they're using the word they got from the Weddilei.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 3:42 PM on June 24, 2006

I wondered where the incredibly photogenic Victory Diner was. A google image search made short work of that question. It's in Staten Island. (scroll to bottom.) NYCers probably knew that.
posted by George_Spiggott at 3:43 PM on June 24, 2006

Metafilter: Sentient Meat
posted by pjern at 3:53 PM on June 24, 2006

The fact that it's two people made out of meat talking about other people who are made out of meat completely ruins it for me.
posted by empath at 4:07 PM on June 24, 2006

This will be much funnier when it can be performed by robots.
posted by spazzm at 4:27 PM on June 24, 2006

I think the should have used disembodied voices witnessing human actions like in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Ahhh, but different...
And, I'm with Dipsomaniac. The changes to the dialog were for the worse.
posted by batou_ at 5:14 PM on June 24, 2006

fucking stellar...thanks...

solopsist, metafilter: the meat the the machine?
posted by es_de_bah at 8:09 PM on June 24, 2006

ehhh...

But I do love Tom Noonan.
posted by oraknabo at 12:02 AM on June 25, 2006

I love this story, but it's really meant to be heard rather than seen.
posted by Feral at 1:36 AM on June 25, 2006

I love it when some idiot film-maker adapts a story he doesn't even understand.
posted by w0mbat at 4:27 PM on June 25, 2006

I love it when some idiot film-maker. . .

It did win the grand prize at the 1st Annual SF Short Film festival.
posted by Staggering Jack at 7:40 PM on June 25, 2006

I think the should have used disembodied voices witnessing human actions like in 'It's a Wonderful Life'. Ahhh, but different...

Or they could have ripped off MST3K and had a couple of robots riffing on "thinking meat... dreaming meat" while watching the meat on a movie screen.

Then again, what do I know.
posted by micketymoc at 9:12 PM on June 25, 2006

I've always loved the line "They're meat all the way through."

it makes me giggle every time I read it.
posted by Julnyes at 10:27 PM on June 25, 2006