Cinema 16

The Discipline of D. E. (2x9)

Air date: May 17, 1982

THE DISCIPLINE OF D.E. is one of the finest shorts by Gus van Sant who made as many as fourteen between 1967 and 1991. Van Sant would go on to make many of the hallmarks of modern independent cinema, notably DRUGSTORE COWBOY (1989), MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO (1991) and ELEPHANT (2003). In this narrated version of a short story by William S. Burroughs we learn the principles of "Do Easy" and the complications that can arise from the quest to perfect each movement in order to find the most efficient way of doing everything - even nothing. The black and white short culminates in a gun fight with the poignant question "How fast can you take your time, kid?".