Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud

As a child, R. Buckminster "Bucky" Fuller was "cross-eyed, unpopular and badly behaved;" in his 80's, one interviewee quips, Fuller was still in his "adolescent rebellion stage." He was definitely one of the most interesting characters of our century, and Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon's eclectic documentary offers a riveting portrait. Combining interviews with Fuller's contemporaries (Fuller lived from 1895-1983) along with excerpts from his writings (read by Spalding Gray), the film traces his before-its-time ecological and globally minded thinking, as displayed in such incredible inventions as the Dymaxion car, a 3-wheeler that regularly earned Fuller speeding tickets for driving in excess of 110 m.p.h. (an unheard of speed for a passenger car in 1933); and the Dymaxion Deployment Unit, an aluminum/stainless steel house that was light, efficient, cheap, and looked like something out of cheesy sci-fi flick. Bad luck, poor business sense, and downright stubbornness kept Fuller from achieving financial success. All of that changed in the 1950's, however, with Fuller's invention of the geodesic dome, and in the 1960's when he was one of the only people over 30 that the flower children trusted. Ultimately, the geodesic craze did not really catch on at the consumer domicile level--though there were geodesic cow barns and churches for awhile. A man of incredible energy, a prodigious speaker (in his heyday, Fuller delivered 400-500 lectures a year, some of which went on for several hours), and a provocative thinker, Fuller, as one associate says, "was the last of the great believers." An outstanding documentary about a man who was, by turns, visionary, selfish, innovative, egomaniacal, inspirational, and, ultimately tragic--a 21st century man who tried to talk to a 20th century world. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: H, C, P. (R. Pitman)