Norman Maclean

Transcript (Download)

So no time will be lost in collecting and piling their stuff in the same pile and being off to the fire.

In order to drop as straight as possible, the jumpers originally stood straight up in front of the door of the plane and the spotter would say, do you see that target area down there? But if the jumper was a new man, the spotter wouldn't look.

Vibrates in the rocks below and his feet are thrown over his head.

So it is to be born in the sky with a loud noise and your feet where your head ought to be.

So it is to be born in the sky with a loud noise.

The moment you cease to be umbilical, you become seed blown by the wind.

It is very lonely for a young man to be seed in the wind.

Although you are seed, the sky still seems like the womb and you a seed are blown around the sky's interior parts until you lie on the top of a tree or hard rocks or grass.

If you land on the trees, you are probably lucky, especially if you have a long cord in your pocket by which you can let yourself down to the rocks.

But only a small percentage when they touch earth land on the tops of trees.

Try as they may to avoid landing on rocks, many do and one was killed when his wire screen face smashed into a cliff.

Landing smoothly from the sky does not come natural to man.

If he continues to miss sleep because of it, he doesn't tell anybody but he quits the smoke jumpers and joins up with something like the crew that makes trails.

Whatever he tries it is something close to the ground and he never tries jumping again which makes him vomit.

Fear could be part of the reason they are jumping only 15 men on this thing.

Identifier

F.2005-08-0093

Date Of Production

circa May 1985

Abstract

Footage of Norman Maclean as he reads an excerpt from a draft of Young Men and Fire to an audience outdoors, intercut with footage taken on May 5, 1985, of workers as they prepare to install Vermont artist Jim Dine’s 6,000-pound sculpture piece 2 Big Black Hearts for the Chicago Sculpture International-sponsored “Mile-4” exhibit located at the State Street Mall.

Format

Super 8

Extent

50 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Mag Stripe

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Reversal Positives

Subject

Literature
Art

Preservation Sponsor

Related Collections

Subseries II: Footage

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago ➜ Loop

Main Credits

Stamets, Bill (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Maclean, Norman (is participant)

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