Nice little film with the message of helping each other out in a hard situation. You can almost touch the friendly and sympathetic atmosphere. Visually, it wasn't that special but still you can see that there's much more professional film crew behind it than with your average short films. And I think the music suits this one well. Of course we wouldn't know of this if it wasn't on the LOTR DVD but it made me smile, maybe even chuckle a bit and that's enough. Worth watching it again some another time, especially as this doesn't really take that much time out of your life.
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TuomoH22 December 2003
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spaceblunt12 September 2003When I saw The long and short of it I was feeling a little bit down but after the screening I felt A lot better. It's this kind of story that gives you A warm feeling inside, and we all can use some more of this. The story itself is simple, and the moral after it is good. It shows that if we all work together we can achieve almost everything. I hope to see more of this kind of movie's.
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bernadette_barnes3 January 2005An added feature to the Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers this very short film is a hidden gem.
Poignant music and a gentle, direct story make this a delightful short film. Through the use of very expressive faces and good camera work, Sean Astin gives us a little jewel of a short film, focusing on the value of cooperation and the idea that each person, no matter how small, (or tall) may have an effect on the world. It also portrays simple kindness, given and returned.
A great little film for us all, but is especially well suited to showing children how we can all lend a hand to accomplish more than each could individually.
Many, many thanks to Sean Astin and all the wonderful Lord of the Rings folks who added their talents to this charming beauty. -
ceallaig-113 January 2004This is a sweet, compact little film about the way total strangers can impact on each other's lives. Coming in at about four minutes and choreographed to the aria "Che Gelida Manina", it involves a simple but heartfelt story, a touch of humor, and puts forth the notion that everyone can have a role to play in the world -- all they have to do is look for the opportunity. I look forward to more work from Sean behind as well as in front of the camera. LOTR fans will recognize many of the faces here, and for those who have the Two Towers DVD, watch the 'making of' featurette on the short -- it is a riot!
I hope this little film met the criteria for inclusion in the Oscar race -- I would be delighted to cheer this to a win in the spring. -
It seems that Sean Astin wound up with some time on his hands while filming the Lord of the Rings, so he decided to make a film of his own. He enlisted Peter Jackson, Director of Lord of the Rings and some other cast and crew members. This is about 5 minutes in length and is a tale of cooperation and collaborative effort...symbiosis, essentially. When a workman has a problem hanging an advertisement, some people of differing sizes lend a hand (unbidden). The result is a properly done job and new friends for the workman. A creditable job by all. Peter Jackson took time out of his busy schedule to be the bus driver.
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pwyung514 February 2003knowing that it's directed by sean astin during the filming of LOTR, i thought it'd be funny. but it turned out to be quite a simple short film which tells a really simple message. it may be kinda sweet, in a way, or it may make you smile when you see the little double and the big folk, but it's nothing really special. tho, of course, it IS special to us LOTR fans cuz it's a project of sean astin together with other LOTR cast & crew. but for the others who are not seeing this for the sake of Sean, just don't expect too much, it might disappoint you.
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lawstudent00723 January 2003This is a wonderful little short about cooperation. The direction is great. Sean took a very simple approach, not a lot of angles, just letting the simple story and setting come out. It seems like it was done simply as a fun diversion while filming the epic Lord of the Rings, and illustrating on a small level what all those involved learned. Watch for Peter Jackson's cameo. And be sure to read the credits. Some are just plain funny! All in all, a fun short film, that proves that Sean Astin has the instinct to become a great director, if he wants to.
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Vote: 5.5 (rounded up to 6) A cute, if useless, little film made from some of the cast and crew of LOTR. Directed by Sean Astin, this short is available on the LOTR: TT DVD on the second disc. Basically, a painter (Andrew Lesnie) is trying to put up a poster advertising a new car, when a midget (Fron Chansantor) and a giant (Paul Randall) lend a hand. Then they smile at each other while some Italian opera music is playing and they get on a bus (bus driver played by Peter Jackson). The morale of this story is, if we work together despite our differences we can hang up a poster advertising a new car ^-^. So if you're getting ready to watch the Two Towers and your friend or someone is upstairs getting the chips, put in the second disc and be blown away! ^-^
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LisaMMoran10 March 2003This is a wonderful short by immerging filmmaker Sean Astin. Made on their days off while shooting Lord of the Rings in New Zealand it makes use of the lesser seen crew members in a gentle and simple story about a man in a spot of bother who is helped by some passersby. I absolutely love the idea that Elijah Wood is First Assistant Director and Andy Serkis is Assistant Location Manager.
To me this is really about the spirit of Peter Jackson's trilogy and the bonds that were formed. It's just a really sweet and endearing little film with some astonishly big names attached to it. -
robyn-710-76716711 June 2011I've always admired short films. After all, I attempted to make one. But mine was more for fun, and only with digital camera. This was made with a few extra cameras that they had one day while shooting for the Lord of the Rings and one of the guys working on it had the idea to make this short film. Very interesting how the cameo appearances worked out. Especially with the director! As far as the story goes, it seems okay. The music sort of was annoying, actually. However, the story behind the plot was okay. it shows that people CAN made a difference even though they are different in stature.
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Evil_Magus19 July 2006My summary pretty well describes my feelings for this: It's a touching short film. It's of a surprisingly good quality (seeing as how they used the set cameras from their filming The Lord of the Rings). It presents a fairly simple problem that is overcome with the help of passing pedestrians; nothing too complex. It has an endearing quality about it, something to remember in the back of your head after the credits cut out. There are much better short movies out there, but this is still a deserving mention.
This movie are for fans of Sean Astin and short film. People who like silent film will enjoy this dialog-less story as well. It might also be of note to anybody with The Two Towers, where this film is planted. -
gummitch-216 February 2003I loved this short movie, it's funny and sweet at the same time. The message of the story may be simple, but it's also universal.
The short is very well directed (hey Sean, you're pretty good!) and the actors are priceless: just look at Andrew Lesnie's face!
Of course, LOTR fans will enjoy it immensely: if you've bought FOTR, the extended edition, you're obviously going to recognize everyone: Lesnie is LOTR's wonderful director of photography, and the other two characters of this short movie are stunt doubles.
Don't miss the closing credits, they're hilarious. -
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews15 December 2012When a workman is having trouble hanging up a poster, he gets some help by two people in opposite ends of the spectrum of physical size. This is 5 minutes(if one doesn't count the credits, or the 1 minute intro by Sean(who, worth noting, has directed a few times before this, albeit it is his first writing effort, inspired by their late gaffer, Brian Bansgrove, R.I.P.), featuring some behind-the-scenes footage, bringing it to 7, total), and as a short film, it's a sweet little(no pun intended) piece, not spectacular from a technical standpoint(cinematography and editing are perfectly serviceable, and the completely silent nature of it focuses it nicely... there is no dialog, and the only thing ever heard is the score, which I believe is opera), but notable for having been done during the intense production schedule of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(hence it appearing among the special features on the 2-Disc DVD release of it), mostly by crew-members(the one actor involved in this does not appear in it, whereas someone like Peter Jackson has a cameo role in it), including the highly important, and terribly overlooked, body doubles that enabled such convincing depiction of contrasts in scale for the various races in the excellent trilogy(where this gets its theme: that of standing together, of helping each other make up for our differences, a message that is well worth sharing). I recommend this to any fan of the Tolkien adaptations. 7/10
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MovieAddict201619 January 2004Sean Astin is a pretty good actor. I didn't like his work in The Lord of the Rings, but he was good in Rudy and The Goonies (when he was a kid). Here, he tries to create a sweet short film with a message -- but fails miserably. It's not uplifting or sweet. It's just corny and dumb. Filmed on the set of The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand, you may catch a glimpse of Lord of the Rings directer Peter Jackson as the bus driver. Someone once said that Jackson's films are long and unruly, like his beard, whereas George Lucas's films are neat and smooth, like his own films. I don't know. But that Jackson sure does look like a slob.
Boy, I'm going to get some angry Lord of the Rings fans after me for saying that. -
yawgmoth_74230 October 2004It was a typical weekend in Wellington, New Zealand when Sean Astin borrowed a camera or two from the "Lord of the Rings" set to shoot a short film he had written.
This is hardly on the scale of "The Lord of the Rings" - especially when one considers that it was made with some materials borrowed from the epic for one afternoon. Nevertheless, it is a very nice short film that is well worth five minutes of anyone's time.
I found the making of documentary to be quite humorous, with Andy Serkis describing his plot - even more insidiously evil than Gollum's plan to steal the One Ring - to rise through the ranks of the production crew :).
I would give this film four out of five, with the fifth star always being reserved for the films that are unspeakably wondrous, so there's no shame in not getting it, especially as small a picture as this. -
tooty_fruity29 August 2003although the music behind the story gave it an annoying feel the moral of the story was put across really well and it kept me entertained! the directing was nicely done and the story well written for on screen. credits to Dom and Sean for putting together such a great little piece!
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lindzjoy_8626 May 2004I've always admired someone who wants to try something new and that's exactly what Sean Astin, a brilliant actor, was doing with this film. He has a passion and incredible talent for acting, but thought he would try making a film while in New Zealand, which turned out to be a wonderful, sweet, warm-hearted film. True, it is only 5 minutes long, but for a first-time director, the film was awesome. :) I don't think many of us realize how difficult it is to write and direct even a sequence as short as this film. There's a lot more to it than you think, so film critics, go try it yourself before criticizing. For this fact, I admire Peter Jackson more than almost all people in the film business. He has captured the art of film, through writing, directing, cinematography, and practically all that film is. For all we know, Sean Astin could follow in his footsteps. So again, great film, Sean Astin, it's one of those "feel-good" short films and definitely worth watching.
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wolfstar_imdb23 January 2003From what I'd seen of Sean Astin I thought this short film shown at the Sundance Film Festival, which he wrote and directed during the making of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy, might be interesting and good. But no, it's simply awful, cliché-ridden, and pointless. It's so bad it's almost like a spoof of pretentious arthouse cinema, but tragically it's the real thing. At 5 minutes long, and viewable at the Sundance website, it's worth watching just to laugh at how bad it is. I was amused and disappointed to see "Written by Sean Astin and Dominic Monaghan" in the credits, as there's so little to it it's strange to think that someone actually wrote it, but it took two of them? ANYONE could have written this "film", there are no words and the message is so simple and facile that it's beyond belief. If someone had shown me the script with the names removed I would probably guess that it had been written by a group of 7-year-olds with help from their teacher as part of their class project on how we can all live together and help each other, so absurdly patronising is this film's message.
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KatBNLGuitarChick17 May 2004When I picked up the Two Towers DVD I was very pleasantly surprised when I noticed in the extras this gem. I found it quite amusing, I suppose to the heights of the certain characters and how when you all get together, you can accomplish anything even maybe just putting up a car advertisement that none of them could really afford, anyways. Besides that, I think the storyline was the best. It was clever, witty, and so similar, if not really, a silent movie, and just let the actions do the talking. The music was well received, also. One of the writing successes had to be the title. That was one of the wittiest titles for a short film I have ever seen! Or a full feature, to be precise.
Although, the best part had to be when Peter Jackson was the bus driver, and there was so many references to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It never really hurts to pimp yourself, does it?
Sean does an excellent job, and I do hope him much more success in his film making endeavours. Sean is quickly becoming one of my favourite movie actor's, never mind writing and such. Amazing! I love this!
Kat =^..^ -
greywolf1970fu9 April 2013Some free time and access to cast and filming equipment during the Two Towers shoot, prompted Sean Astin to 'express himself'. Good Lord. Hasn't he been in the film business since he was a little kid? You'd think he'd be able to string-together something interesting for 5 minutes with the resources available to him. This is trite, community college 'filmmaking', and he should be embarrassed for wasting people's time and having the gall to get this screened at Sundance.
Please Sean...
stick to complaining, biting the hand that feeds you, and living off of past roles.
Don't venture behind the camera anymore unless you surround yourself with much more talented people. -
Nic225521 October 2004After I watched this, I had a big smile on my face. It's only about five minutes long, but it brings across an important message that should be around more where I am. It's about when a 'grizzled painters' trying to paste a poster up on the wall, but his ladders broken and he's struggling to get it up properly. Then a 3 1/2 foot tall woman and an 8 foot man help him. Just imagine a place where everybody stretched out there empty hands to help other people. It's inspiring. I love Sean Astin's acting and I hope he goes further with directing. It's exactly like what happened to make this, cast and crew working on the Lord of the Rings giving up their spare time to help. It's great! 10/10
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Frogfisher7 March 2003The length of this short film is no longer than a long commercial, which you, if you notice the characters product, can have a little laugh about.
But the film is probably about the Movies all members of the crew is From ,LOTR. And as the tagline says "it's all about Collaboration", and Astin give it a twist, it's not Viggo, Elijah, Liv, Sean, Cristopher or one of the Ians we see in the film. No he takes the crew, the unknown people behind the camera, or wigs and makeup, and makes them the stars and makes the Stars from LOTR crew, great fun. Even Peter Jackson has a cameo in the film.
The Film is with out words, just people thinking alike and helping each other with out exchanging words. Collaboration.
I enjoyed it, both because of the story of the crew and cast, and because it is a short and lovable story. -
marcomachado28 October 2003For me The Long and Short Of It it's a perfect example of what a short-movie should be. The simplicity of the plot hides a powerful metaphor. A metaphor about the importance of the role that each and everyone of us plays in life. A metaphor about helping other wanting nothing in return but a smile. A metaphor about friendship....about life.
I think it also shows how tight were the bounds created during the shooting of the Lord of The Rings, not only between the actors but actually between the whole crew.
It's 5 minutes of a sweet and touching movie -
Horst_In_Translation17 September 2013Sean Astin released this short film between the release of the second and third Lord of the Rings films which made him famous as the character of Frodo Baggins' best friend Sam. He cast two extras from the trilogy, possibly the smallest and tallest he could find and uses them here to tell a tale of compassion and assistance of a worker unable to hang a giant picture himself. At the end, Peter Jackson, the Oscar-winning (not yet at that point though) director makes a short cameo as a bus driver.
While the way they were interacting was as nice to watch as the three of them standing in front of the giant poster, this short film really belongs to the category "once is enough". It's neither particularly funny, nor a great character study, but just some kind of feel-good movie that goes on for 5 minutes. If you like Astin and the Lord of the Rings, grab a copy and watch it, otherwise you're not really missing much. -
gadfly6316 February 2003I thought it was adorable, and all of the faces will be familiar to anyone who watched the DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring. It has a very simple and positive message, and the choice of music is a nice touch. I hope to see more from these folks in the future.