See WikipediaBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"TOYNBEE IDEA
IN Kubrick's 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER."
Stanley Kubrick's 2001 provides the catalyst for a decades-long planting of tiles in streets all over the US and South America with the above message. The documentary Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles is director, writer John Foy's attempt to chronicle Justin Duerr's search for the author of these tiles and their meaning.
The film is not as compelling as it might be as Wikipedia already lists the perpetrator, whom Duerr identifies after a process of elimination to be Philadelphian Severino "Sevy" Verna, aka James Morasco. He purportedly placed the tiles through a hole in the floor of his car while broadcasting a message via short wave radio about his theories.
Thus the suspense is a surface affectation with the film really being about the process of identifying the artist of the tiles.
Actually, the deconstruction of the tiles' meaning is more interesting than the hunt for the author, the meaning resting squarely on Toynbee's theory that the body's molecules after death could be reassembled as Kubrick had hinted in his denouement to 2001.
In addition to 2001, a 1983 short play by David Mamet, 4 A.M., depicts a Larry King-like radio host taking a call about 2001, Toynbee, and plans to populate Jupiter with those reconstituted molecules. Mamet has been flattered thinking the tiles were inspired by the play.
Too much talking-head sequence masks the lack of evidence beyond the tiles themselves. Visits to the alleged perpetrator's hood are cold leads that only hint at disclosure and certainly add little to the hunt. Artfully moody original music by Foy lends atmosphere to what ends up an amusing account of two nerds searching out another nerd.
I have enough of that experience visiting Com-Con and Star Trek conventions.
John DeSando co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com