Joy Anderson This was an excellently written and executed piece that brings light to the absurdity of the battle for equality. Pure equality, which I believe, can never truly be reached. James Cosmo as the father is a picture of strength, pride, and hope even in his ultimately restricted state. Julie Hagerty as the mother gives the piece a feeling of home and serenity and even peace with living underneath the governmental thumb. Armie Hammer's role as the rebellion and one whose drive it is to enlighten others of the injustice of it all was powerful and engaging. The entire film is given a somber, yet beautiful tone through the eery sounds of the cello. This film leaves a person to think about our equality and how far we should reach for it. I loved every second and highly recommend this short film.

meddlecore As the film opens we find ourselves in Vonnegut's dystopian world in the year of 2081: a world in which everyone is "finally equal". Society has taken it upon itself to make everyone equal....in every possible way. No one is faster than anyone else, no one is stronger than anyone else, no one is more talented than anyone else, and of course, no one is smarter than anyone else. As it is not possible to make stupid people as intelligent as others, to achieve absolute equality they have resorted to dumbing everyone down; making them mindless zombies bred to perpetuate mediocrity. The US head of state is no longer the President, but rather the "Handicapper General", whose job it is to dictate the handicaps that citizens must dawn in order to put themselves on an equal level with those who are deemed to not require a handicap.As such, we find ourselves observing a couple: the wife is the mindless religious type, who never ponders on anything that may make her uncomfortable; never questions anything, let alone challenge authority; and who does not require any handicap as she is considered the standard of normalcy. Her husband, on the other hand, is heavily handicapped, and, via various cinematic techniques in conjunction with technical handicapping mechanisms, we are shown how these handicaps manifest themselves for the affected individual. In the case of the man we are observing, they seem to interrupt his reflections on past memories that the Handicapper General feels could lead to acts of dissent.We find out more of what these memories are about when a "Breaking News" story interrupts the program he is watching to announce that "suspected Anarchist" Harrison Bergeron has escaped from custody. Arrested several years ago, Bergeron was charged with "propagandous vandalism, broadcast piracy, refusal to report for his handicapping evaluations, and blatant removal of his handicaps in a public place." The newscaster continues by stating that he is," an athlete and genius. Is extremely under-handicapped and considered to be dangerous." When the regularly scheduled program returns, something is not right. Immediately the man whose room we are watching from whispers, "Harrison". Suddenly, a mech-Jesus-esque man that looks like he just escaped from a mental institution, but was unable to fully remove all the restraint mechanisms, takes over the stage, announcing that "there is a bomb in the theatre, and the detonator is in my hand". It's Bergeron; "the greatest man you've never known", and with a sense of utopian pride he rips off his handicaps after having orated a moving soliloquy meant to inspire the masses into throwing off their handicaps and joining him in a revolution against the oppressive system and Handicapper General.In a last ditch effort to inspire the masses (while still being broadcast) Bergeron chooses a woman, gets her to remove her handicaps and together they show what can be done when given a chance, without handicaps. Subsequently we watch the counter-revolutionary police force move in, attempt to disable the broadcast, and the bomb.Will Bergeron be successful in his attempt to catalyze an uprising, or will Counter-Revolutionary forces quell the revolution and maintain their debilitating stranglehold on power? At just over 26 minutes, Chandler Tuttle's interesting take on Kurt Vonnegut Jr's tale of absurdity- "Harrison Bergeron"- is well worth a watch, especially if you are a fan of dystopian films like I am. It's nicely shot with some funny moments, and worth it alone for Bergeron's rant. 6.5 out of 10.

thesaucepan Sometimes in an effort to stretch a film out to 90 minutes plus or to show off or to pander to their audience or I don't even know what else, film makers lose sight of what film is - it is ART. Art should, at its essence, be a concretization of abstracts (themes, emotions, virtues). When the film is an adaptation of a work of literature, this common fault can become even more glaring. Harrison Bergeron is a short story with a single, universal theme. As a story, it is no longer than it needs to be to concretize that theme and it does it well. As a film, I can say the same of 2081. Combine the flawless simplicity with excellent casting, a moving score and good directorial choices and cinematography, and the result is a short film that I consider about as good as film gets.This is not for the faint of heart, however. I am still shaking. Knowing the story before hand, I knew I would be moved, and I was. This film, this theme, is oh so relevant today. It's nice to see that some people understood this well enough to make this perfect work of art. To them, I say thank you.

jessi0031 While this film stuck closely to Vonnegut's story (which is why I give it five stars instead of one), I couldn't help but find it lacking. I'm not sure exactly what was missing, but I did not find it as moving as the original story of Harrison Bergeron. Most of the acting was flat and unemotional. The whole thing was overly dry and serious, yet somehow managed to seem overdone. It was like a delicious recipe for chocolate brownies that was baked until all the flavor was gone. Overall, I have to say that something important was lost in this translation. There just wasn't enough feeling. This film just sucked all the emotion and humor right out of the story.