You can watch this entire 1974 film on youtube here. As of now, it’s completely without ads or interruptions. The film is an American adaption of the play, Rhinoceros, Eugène Ionesco, written in 1959. Over the course of three acts, the inhabitants of a small city turn into rhinoceroses; ultimately the only human who does not succumb to this mass metamorphosis is the central character, Stanley, played by Wilder, a flustered office worker who is initially criticized for his drinking, tardiness, and slovenly lifestyle, then later for his increasing paranoia and obsession with the rhinoceroses.
The play is often read as a response and criticism to the sudden upsurge of Fascism and Nazism during the events preceding World War II, and explores the themes of conformity, culture, fascism, responsibility, logic, mass movements, mob mentality, philosophy and morality. It’s time is once again, now.
Chris Bevens | pedalpoet 