Carter: The Plastic Grip

As Werner Boote adheres his face to the plastic fabric and deeply inhales that plastic smell, I can note the very same smell that radiates from pool toys or a new shower curtain. As he tears away his face from the fabric and moves his hands over it, I can feel the same rough-but-slippery surface and hear the fingers scratching the surface. Within the film, scenes show rays of light hitting the plastic giving the eye all of the bright colors and shapes.  Plastic Planet plays on the senses of the audience which keeps their attention.  

Boote takes advantage of the audience’s experiences with plastic because he knows almost everyone living on Earth encounters plastic on a daily basis. He knows the audience recognizes how it feels, looks, smells, and sounds.  Boote inhaling the plastic essence in the film triggers a memory of the audience which brings them to playing in the pool, or taking a shower hiding behind a new shower curtain. Everyone knows that smell. I love that smell. Showing the colors and shapes keeps their minds attentive because people like to look at things that are bright and colorful. Boote wants to keep the attention of his audience, aside from using his wit and charm, by utilizing our senses so he can feed his argument of plastic being detrimental to our health and to the world. That plastic smell that I know and love is killing me slowly or making me infertile. That touch of plastic is giving me cancer by absorbing the harmful chemicals. The sight of plastic is no longer just my bright-colored shower curtain or a fun-shaped pool toy, the current sight is the expanding landfills or the ocean covered in plastic. The true reason Boote plays the senses card is because no one can escape the plastic grip.

 

Plastic Planet.Dir. Werner Bootes.2011