"Free Radicals" is a 1958, 4.5-minute short film by Len lye from new Zealand. And even if this one is also almost 60 years old, it was Len Lye's penultimate work and he wasn't a prolific artist at this point anymore. Nonetheless, this one here is definitely a contender for his most known and best-received work. Other people moved on from color to black-and-white, but Lye, who already used color in his early works made this one here in black-and-white, so he went against time basically. I am not sure if this metaphor was his intention though. Maybe he was just in the mood for something different. The animation is nothing special as in most of his other films. To me, the music has always been the highlight and it is in this one as well. The melody of the drums is nice to listen to. However, a record can give me the same experience. I do not need to watch an experimental film for that sensation. Not recommended and I believe in terms of what we see this is certainly among Lye's weaker versions. I guess a lot of his creativity had already vanished at this point and new ideas were rare.

Displays the graph that follows traditional African music's voice strains of sway, between music and graphics so mix and so gave the impression of beauty in the melting pot of musical art and graphics.Len Lye recalls, "I made Free Radicals from 16mm black film leader, which you can get from DuPont. I took a graver, various kinds of needles. (My range included arrowheads for romanticism.) You stick down the sides with scotch tape and you get to work with scratching the stuff out. … … You hold your hand at the right height and act is if you were making your signature. It goes on forever. You can carry a pictographic design in your head and make a little design. You can't see what you're doing because your hand is in the way. That's why those things have that kind of spastic look." There are some people that call this film original and innovative while others say it is just one of many doing the same thing about the same time. Now, I am not familiar enough with this sort of film to speak intelligently on that. I am not aware of the timeline, or which films came first. What I do know is that original or not, this is an interesting way to show the music of tribal people. We could film them dancing and that would be a great anthropological document... but there is something interesting bout turning it into both audio and visual art.

Free Radicals (1958) *** (out of 4) Len Lye isn't a very well-known name and I'd say 99.9% of the mainstream public won't know who he is. This short is perhaps one of his best known works to the small minority who do know the filmmaker and the history of this thing is pretty incredible. Basically Lye took some film and scratched it. Yes, that's pretty much what the entire four minute is but it's not just any random scratches. It's clear that Lye had a vision and just check out the credits and how they are presented here. They certainly make you stand up and pay attention to what's going on. The entire running time we're basically given a black screen with scratches and I'm sure many will wonder what the point of this is. Is this film going to be viewed by the masses? Is it grand entertainment that is a must see for film buffs? Not really on either account but at the same time it's certainly something different and fans of the surreal should at least find it worth viewing.

This is absolutely essential viewing for anyone into experimental film. I cannot believe it is 50 years old, it is absolutely timeless and suggests that we haven't progressed much since. I have never seen music and images work so well together, it's like the drums are fused with the visuals to create a new medium altogether. Stunning creativity and attention to detail, a beautifully 'simple' idea perfectly executed. To think of old Len visualising his then diligently scraping away film emulsion to the beats in his head is very exciting indeed (to me, at least). If you haven't seen this and are into experimental film, track it down - it's as essential as your By Brakhage Criterion DVD.