Deer in the works

Adapted from the short story “Deer in the works” by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, written in 1955. This film is about David Potter (Dennis Dugan) who was admitted to Ilium Works employment office hoping to land a writing job. Running his own small newspaper was too insecure now that the twin girls were born. After a preliminary interview and physical, he was hired and sent through the deafening noise and ceaseless activity of the huge, maze-like industrial complex to Lou Flammer in publicity. A story was already waiting for him: a deer was loose in the Works. But the confusion of endless buildings and labs, the faceless people and the elusiveness of the deer made David’s search for the story fruitless - until he saw a mob armed with sticks and shovels chasing the small, frightened deer. His course of action was clear: David opened the gate leading to the nearby wood. The deer bolted out…and David Potter followed. he didn’t look back. Includes themes of alienation and anonymity in modern society.

Credits

producer/director

Ron Underwood

production company

Barr Films

Duration

00:24:00:00

Production places

United States

Production dates

1980

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

32600

Language

English

Subject categories

Adaptations

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Employment

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrial sociology

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Industrialization

Agriculture, Business, Commerce & Industry → Work environment

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Social conflict

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Social isolation

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Alienation (Social psychology)

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Social isolation

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Alienation (Social psychology)

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Psychology, Industrial

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Responsibility

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Security (Psychology)

History → Civilization, Modern - 20th century

Literature → American literature - Film and video adaptations

Literature → Literature

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

16mm film; Access Print (Section 1)

16mm film; Preservation Print (Section 5)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/76829--deer-in-the-works/ |title=Deer in the works |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=25 July 2021 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}

United States, 1980

Please note